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THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON    •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &   CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON 


AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


FOR 


SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


BY 

WILLIAM    B.   CAIRNS,  PH.D. 

ASSISTANT    PROFESSOR    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE 
IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 


THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1915 

All  rights  reserved 

M/   ' 


COPYRIGHT,  1914, 
BY  THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.      Published  September,  1914.      Reprinted 
June,   1915. 


Norinaoti 

J.  8.  Cushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

TEACHERS  of  English  are  fairly  well  agreed  that  most 
of  the  time  spent  in  literary  study  should  be  devoted  to 
literature  itself,  rather  than  to  history,  biography,  or 
second-hand  criticism.  Yet  many,  and  it  seems  to  me  an 
increasing  number,  feel  that  the  student  needs  a  brief 
general  survey  to  aid  him  in  grouping  and  correlating 
scattered  facts,  and  to  show  things  in  their  right  propor 
tions.  This  is  especially  true  in  American  literature, 
where,  if  anywhere,  the  American  student  should  corre 
late  literary  history  with  other  history,  and  should  see 
that  American  authors  reflect  in  their  writings  national 
life. 

This  book  is  intended  primarily  for  use  in  secondary 
schools  where  such  a  survey  is  offered  in  the  third  or 
fourth  year  of  the  course.  It  gives  relatively  few  dates 
or  unessential  biographical  facts,  and  only  a  moderate 
amount  of  formal  criticism  ;  but  it  aims  to  show  the  con 
tinuous  growth  and  development  of  American  literature, 
to  point  out  its  connection  with  the  American  history 
which  the  student  already  knows,  and  to  discuss  in  their 
proper  relationships  those  authors  with  whom  an  Ameri 
can  might  reasonably  be  supposed  to  have  an  acquaintance. 

A  single  brief  term  would  be  sufficient  to  study  the  es 
sential  parts  of  the  text,  and  to  illustrate  them  by  refer 
ence  to  writings  which  the  pupil  has  already  read.  The 
work  will  be  far  more  profitable  and  more  interesting, 
however,  if  the  history  can  be  enforced  by  a  considerable 
amount  of  reading  in  the  literature  itself.  The  lists  of 


vi  PREFACE 

readings  and  topics  should   furnish  ample   material   for 
such  an  extension  and  enrichment  of  the  course. 

These  lists  of  readings  and  topics  have  been  submitted 
to  several  successful  teachers  of  English  in  secondary 
schools.  Among  those  to  whom  I  am  especially  indebted 
for  hints,  additions,  and  advice,  are  my  colleague,  Professor 
H.  K.  Bassett;  Mr.  Merle  M.  Hoover,  of  the  William  L. 
Dickinson  High  School,  Jersey  City ;  and  my  former  pupils 
at  Wisconsin  or  Columbia,  Miss  May  V.  Dunn,  Miss  Ger 
trude  Ross,  Miss  J.  W.  Rutland,  and  Miss  Leslie  Spence. 
These  persons  must  be  credited  with  many  of  the  happi 
est  suggestions  in  the  lists,  but  they  are  in  no  way  re 
sponsible  for  the  limitations  and  defects.  While  the 
chronological  tables  in  the  appendix  have  been  compiled 
from  various  sources,  it  would  be  unfair  not  to  acknowl 
edge  my  indebtedness  to  Whitcomb's  Chronological  Out 
lines  of  American  Literature. 

For  permission  to  reproduce  interesting  illustrations  I 
would  extend  my  thanks  to  Harper  &  Brothers,  Dodd 
Mead  &  Company,  and  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin. 

W.  B.  C. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN, 
July,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 1 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD   (1607-1765)    .        .  3 

SOUTHERN  COLONIAL  WRITINGS,  1607-1676      ....  4 

SOUTHERN  COLONIAL  WRITINGS,  1676-1765       .        .  10 

NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIAL  WRITINGS,  1620-1676      ...  14 

NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIAL  WRITINGS,  1676-1765      ...  27 

WRITINGS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES        .....  36 

GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  THE  COLONIAL  TIME  ....  41 

READINGS  AND  TOPICS 43 

CHAPTER    II 

THE   REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD   (1765-1800)     .  50 

NEW  ENGLAND 51 

THE  MIDDLE  REGION 61 

THE  SOUTH 73 

GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  TIME        .         .  77 

READINGS  AND  TOPICS 80 

CHAPTER   III 

THE   PERIOD  OF   THE   KNICKERBOCKER   WRITERS 

(1800-1833)      .         .       '.         .         .84 

NEW  YORK 87 

NEW  ENGLAND      .         .  112 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PHILADELPHIA 119 

THE  SOUTH  ...........  119 

THE  WEST '      .  121 

GENERAL  SUMMARY 122 

READINGS    AND  TOPICS         ........  128 

CHAPTER   IV 

THE   PERIOD   OF   GREATEST   ACHIEVEMENT 

(1833-1883) 128 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  TRANSCENDENTAUSTS       ....  132 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  ABOLITIONISTS 147 

MISCELLANEOUS  NEW  ENGLAND  WRITERS        ....  171 

THE  MIDDLE  STATES 212 

THE  SOUTH 233 

THE  WEST 249 

GENERAL  SUMMARY 262 

READINGS  AND  TOPICS         ........  265 

CHAPTER   V 
RECENT  YEARS   (1883-1913)     .        .        .281 

CONCLUSION 294 

READINGS  AND  TOPICS .  296 

APPENDIX 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES                                                                 .  301 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Jamestown  in  1622 4 

Frontispiece  to  Smith's  M<tj>  of  Xeic  England  with  portrait  of 

John  Smith 7 

John  Smith  held  captive  by  the  Indians.     A  picture  from  an 

early  American  school  reader 8 

William  Bvrd 13 

Pilgrims  landing  from  the  Mayflower.     A  picture  from  an  early 

American  geography 15 

Schoolhouse  at  Dedham.  Massachusetts;  built  in  1649         .         .  16 

John  Winthrop 18 

Pages  from  the  New  Englnml  Primer  .         .  •  .         .         .20 

Statue  of  Thomas  Hooker  at  Hartford 21 

Title-page  of  The  Simple  Cobler 22 

Title-page  of  Anne  Bradstreet's  first  volume  of  poems          .         .  25 
A  night  attack  by  the  Indians.     A  picture  from  an  early  Ameri 
can  school  reader    .........  28 

Cotton  Mather 31 

Title-page  of  a  sermon  by  Cotton  Mather 33 

Jonathan  Edwards .34 

Benjamin  Franklin 38 

Title-page  of  Poor  H'u-lt<inl'x  Alumnae  ......  39 

Title-page  of  Godfrey's  Poems 40 

Title-page   of   a   patriotic   almanac  of   1770,  with   portrait  of 

James  Otis 52 

Susanna  Rowson.     (From  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library  of 

American  Litr-rafure,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  ">  1 
An  early  illustration  for  Mrl-'int/d/ :  preparations  for  the  tarring 

and  feathering 

Alexander  Hamilton 


X  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

I'AGK 

An  advertisement  of  the  Federalist        ......  63 

The  beginning  of  the  Crisis  as  first  published      ....  64 

Independence  Hall 66 

Charles  Brockden  Brown       ........  68 

Philip  Freneau 69 

Jefferson's  home  at  Monticello      .                  .....  73 

Thomas  Jefferson 74 

The  committee  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence    .         .         .  75 

Jefferson's  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence   ...  76 

Patrick  Henry 77 

Washington  Irving         .........  88 

Irving  at  the  age  of  22.     (From  The  Bookman,  by  permission  of 

Dodd.  Mead  &  Company) 89 

Launcelot  Langstaff  —  one  of  the  supposed  authors  of  Salma 
gundi.     From  the  first  number 89 

The  old  Dutch  church  at  Sleepy  Hollow 90 

Joseph  Jefferson  as  Rip  van  Winkle 92 

Ichabod  Crane's  school ;  by  Darley,  a  famous  early  American 

illustrator      .  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .93 

An  English  cartoon  of  Irving        .......  95 

Sunnyside,  Irving's  home  on  the  Hudson 96 

James  Fenimore  Cooper         ........  98 

Monument  on  site  of  Otsego  Hall,  Cooper's  residence  at  Coopers- 
town 102 

William  Cullen  Bryant 105 

An  advertisement  of  Bryant's  juvenile  satire        ....  106 

Bryant  in  his  earlier  years 106 

Bryant's  home  at  Roslyn,  Long  Island 107 

Bryant,  Daniel  Webster,  and  Irving  at  the  memorial  services 
for  Cooper  in  1852.     (From  The  Bookman,  by  permission  of 

Dodd,  Mead  &  Company) 109 

FitzGreene  Halleck.     (From  Stedman  &  Hutcliinson's  Library  of 

American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  110 
Joseph  Rodman  Drake.     (From  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library 

of  American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  111 
John  Howard  Payne.    (From  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library  of 

American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  112 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

PAGE 

William  Ellery  Channing 114 

Richard  Henry  Dana.  (From  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library  of 

American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E. .Benjamin)  115 

Daniel  Webster 116 

Edward  Everett     ....                                    ...  117 

John  C.  Calhoun    ...                                            .         .         .  120 

Old  North  Church,  Boston    ...                                     .  135 

Kmorson  as  a  young  man       ........  136 

Emerson's  house  in  Concord          ......  138 

Emerson's  grave  in  Sleepy  Hollow  Cemetery,  Concord  .  .  140 

Henry  D.  Thoreau 142 

Walden  Pond.  The  heap  of  stones  marks  the  site  of  Thoreau's 

hut 144 

Margaret  Fuller .  145 

Amos  Bronson  Alcott .146 

William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Wendell  Phillips  .  .  .  149 

Heading  of  Garrison's  Liberator  ....  .  150 

Whittier's  birthplace .  151 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier  ....  ...  153 

James  Russell  Lowell 157 

Lowell  at  31.  (From  The  Bookman,  by  permission  of  Dodd, 

Mead  &  Company) 158 

Elmwood,  Lowell's  home  in  Cambridge 164 

Mrs.  Stowe  as  a  young  woman       ....                 .         .  168 

Title-page  to  first  edition  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  ...  169 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe 170 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 172 

The  Longfellow  house  at  Portland,  Maine 173 

Craigie  House  —  Longfellow's  home  at  Cambridge.  Side  view 

from  the  grounds 174 

The  Wayside  Inn,  Sudbury 177 

Longfellow  in  1860        ....  .180 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne    ....                 ....  183 

Hawthorne  as  a  young  man  ........  184 

The  Old  Manse  at  Concord .186 

Hawthorne's  study  in  "  The  Wayside  " 187 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  196 


xn  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Homestead  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holme  s          .....  197 

An  English  caricature  of  Dr.  Holmes  ......  200 

Fields,  Hawthorne,  and   Ticknor.     (From   Hawthorne   and  his 

Circle,  by  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers)          .         .         .  203 

Louisa  M.  Alcott 204 

Donald  G.  Mitchell.     (From  Stedman  &  Ilutchinson's  Library  of 

American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  205 
Charles  Dudley  Warner.    (From  Stedman  &  Ilutchinson's  Library 

of  American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  206 

Home  of  Charles  Dudley  Warner  at  Hartford      ....  207 

William  H.  Prescott 208 

John  Lothrop  Motley.     (From  Stedman  &  Hutch  in  son's  Library 

of  American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr  W.  K.  Benjamin)  209 

George  Bancroft • 210 

Francis  Parkman 210 

Charles  Sumner  and  Longfellow 211 

Edward  Everett  Hale 212 

Whitman  in  1855  —  Frontispiece  to  first  edition  of  Leares  of  Grass  213 

Whitman's  birthplace 215 

Whitman  at  seventy 218 

Richard  Henry  Stoddard.    (From  Stedman  kHutcbinsou's Library 

•     of  American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  221 

Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich 223 

George  William  Curtis.    (From  Stedman  &  Ilutchinson's  Library 

of  .1  merican  Literature. })\  permission  of  Mr.  W. E.  Benjamin)  225 
Henry  Ward  Beecher.    (From  Stedman  &  Ilutchinson's  Library  of 

American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  225 
William  Dean  Howells.    (From  Stedman  &  Ilutchinson's  Library 

of  American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  227 

Henry  James  ..........  229 

Bayard  Taylor 231 

A  "  snap-shot "  of  William  Dean  Howells  and  Bayard  Taylor. 
(From  Howells'  Literary  friends  and  Acquaintances,  by  per 
mission  of  Harper  &  Brothers) 232 

Edgar  Allan  Poe 235 

Poe's  cottage  at  Fordham,  New  York   ......  239 

Title-page  of  Poe's  first  volume  of  poems     .....  242 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 


William  Gilmore  Simnis 244 

Henry  Tinirod 246 

Sidney  Lanier 248 

Statue  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  by  Gutzon  Borglum  251 

Lincoln's  birthplace 252 

John  Hay 253 

Mark  Twaiiu     (From  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library  of  Ameri 
can  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin) 

Mark  Twain's  boyhood  home 255 

Bret  Harte.   .  (From  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library  of  Ameri 
can  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)          .  259 

Joaquin  Miller  on  his  estate 261 

Helen  Hunt  Jackson 262 

Frank  R.  Stockton.     (From  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library  of 

American  Literature,  by  permission  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin)  285 

Joel  Chandler  Harris 286 

F.  Marion  Crawford .288 

Eugene  Field 293 


2  INTRODUCTION 

the  first  group  of  American  writers  who  won  general  recogni 
tion  abroad.1 

The  fourth  period,  from  1833  to  1883,  was  marked  by  the 
advent,  especially  in  New  England,  of  a  considerable  number 
of  distinguished  writers,2  many  of  whom  were  concerned  with 
the  great  moral  and  social  questions  that  were  agitating  the 
country,  while  others,  both  in  New  England  and  elsewhere, 
wrote  with  a  more  distinctly  aesthetic  purpose. 

The  fifth  period,  from  1883  to  the  present,  is  too  close  at 
hand  to  make  critical  estimates  safe.  It  represents  the  new 
spirit  that  has  arisen  since  the  unification  of  the  nation  after 
the  Civil  War. 

This  division  is  warranted  by  the  fact  that  each  period  is 
distinguished  by  characteristics  and  tendencies  of  its  own. 
A  national  literature  is,  however,  a  complex  and  a  continuous 
development,  and  movements  and  tendencies  never  have 
abrupt  beginnings  or  endings.  The  dates  given  above  are 
convenient  halting  places  in  the  study  of  American  literary 
history,  but  no  one  of  them  marks  an  abrupt  change  in  the 
literature  itself. 

In  connection  with  each  of  these  periods  the  student  should 
recall  all  that  he  has  learned  from  other  sources  regarding 
English  history,  English  literature,  and  American  history  dur 
ing  the  same  years.  He  should  continually  use  the  chrono 
logical  tables  in  the  appendix  to  freshen  his  recollection  of 
earlier  studies,  and  to  remind  him  of  the  relative  position  of 
writers  and  historical  events. 

1  Irving,  Cooper,  Bryant,  and  others. 

2  In  New  England,  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Longfellow,  Whittier, 
Holmes,  Lowell,  and  others ;   in  other  sections  of  the  country,  Poe, 
Whitman,  and  others. 


THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD 

1(107 -17(1.") 

General  Chronology.  —  The  Colonial  period  of  American 
literature  covers  most  of  the  seventeenth  and  the  first  two 
thirds  of  the  eighteenth  centuries  —  a  period  considerably 
longer  than  that  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to 
the  present.  This  period  is  naturally  divided  into  two  un 
equal  subperiods.  In  the  earlier  of  these  the  writings  pro 
duced  in  America  were  almost  wholly  the  work  of  men  who 
had  been  born  and  educated  in  England  and  who  had  emi 
grated  to  the  colonies ;  in  the  later,  American  writers  were 
most  of  them  born,  and  the  great  majority  of  them  educated, 
in  the  New  World.  The  year  1676  is  often  chosen,  arbitrarily 
of  course,  to  mark  the  division  between  these  two  subperiods. 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  colonial  time  there  were  two 
distinct  groups  of  American  writers,  one  in  the  South,  the 
other  in  New  England.  In  the  later  years  of  the  period  a 
third  group  appeared  in  the  Middle  colonies,  particularly 
Pennsylvania.  Since  these  groups  had  little  relation  with 
one  another  it  seems  best  to  treat  each  separately.  This 
chapter  will,  therefore,  consider  first  the  writings  in  the 
Southern  colonies,  then  those  in  New  England,  and  lastly 
those  in  the  Middle  colonies.  The  student  should  take  es 
pecial  pains  to  note  the  relative  chronological  positions  of 
writers  in  the  three  different  sections  of  the  country. 

3 


4      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


SOUTHERN  COLONIAL  WRITINGS,  1607-1676 

Characteristics  of  the  Southern  Colonists.  —  The  first 
writings  that  can  reasonably  be  included  in  a  discussion  of 
American  literature  *  were  produced  by  the  Englishmen  who 
founded  the  Jamestown  colony  in  1607.  These  men  differed 
widely  in  wealth,  social  position,  education,  and  morals,  but 


...    .._..._..;     _,.       I  v^'     '-_.      "f 


Jamestown  in  1622. 

they  agreed  in  holding  the  view  of  life  that  wras  characteristic 
of  the  Elizabethan  time.  In  the  later  years  of  Elizabeth 
and  the  early  years  of  James,  Englishmen  felt  as  never  before 
a  sense  of  nationality  and  at  the  same  time  a  sense  of  the 

1  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  quibble  over  the  question  whether 
some  of  these  earliest  writings  are  "American"  or  not.  We  should 
not  include  among  American  authors  an  Englishman  of  a  later 
date  who  resided  in  the  country  but  a  few  years  as  did  Smith, 
Strachey,  and  Sandys.  With  these  earlier  colonists,  however,  the 
case  seems  somewhat  different.  American  literature  was  an  off 
shoot  from  English  literature  ;  and  at  the  very  beginning  some  writ 
ings  may  be  considered  as  belonging  to  either  the  branch  or  the 
parent  stock,  or  to  both. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  5 

worth  and  importance  of  the  individual.  Under  the  spur 
of  these  ideas  they  achieved  great  results  in  commerce,  explo 
ration,  and  colonization,  and  especially  in  literature.  All 
this  is  suggested  by  the  names  of  Drake  and  Raleigh,  of 
Shakespeare,  Spenser,  Marlowe,  Jonson,  and  many  other  men 
of  action  and  men  of  letters  who  were  contemporaries  or  im 
mediate  predecessors  of  the  first  settlers  in  Virginia.  An 
American  may  feel  a  certain  pride  that  his  national  literature 
was  an  offshoot  of  English  literature  at  this  auspicious  time, 
even  though  he  finds  that  Shakespeare  and  his  greater  con 
temporaries  exerted  little  direct  influence  on  early  American 
writings.  The  Elizabethan  writers  of  London  are  valued 
most  for  their  work  in  poetry  and  the  drama.  The  colonists 
and  explorers  who  were  founding  a  new  settlement  thousands 
of  miles  from  other  white  men  had  little  time  or  inclination 
for  these  finished  forms  of  composition.  When  they  wrote 
it  was  in  prose,  to  report  their  adventures,  or  to  describe  their 
new  surroundings  and  the  strange  people  among  whom  they 
had  come.  For  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  there  is  little 
similarity  in  form  between  their  writings  and  those  of  their 
better  known  English  contemporaries.  Yet  a  careful  study 
will  show  that  there  was  often  great  similarity  in  spirit  and 
outlook  on  life. 

Some  Representative  Writers.  —  A  few  early  Virginian 
writers  should  be  remembered,  not  as  authors  of  great  works, 
but  as  examples  and  types  of  the  Elizabethan  English- 
American.  First  among  these  is  the  famous  CAPTAIN  JOHN 
SMITH.  Smith  was  but  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven  years 
old  when  he  came  to  Jamestown,  in  1007,  yet  he  was  much 
older  in  experience  than  most  men  of  sixty.1  Though  bluff 

1  According  to  statements  in  Smith's  Autobiography,  written  late 
in  life,  his  father  died  \\licn  lie  was  a  boy,  and  he  deserted  a  mer 
chant  to  whom  he  was  apprenticed  and  ran  away  to  find  his  fortune. 


6      AMERICAN  LITER ATUKK  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

and  quarrelsome  he  was  probably  the  most  capable  of  the  new 
colonists.  During  his  stay  of  three  years  he  took  a  prominent 
part  in  the  government,  superintended  the  fortification  of 
Jamestown,  explored  the  surrounding  country,  and  traded 
and  made  treaties  with  the  Indians.  It  is  hard  to  see  how 
he  found  time  for  writing;  but  he  sent  back  to  England  in 
the  early  summer  of  1(>(KS  an  historical  and  descriptive  manu 
script  which  was  published  in  England  as  A  True  Relation 
of  Virginia,1  and  which  has  the  distinction  of  being  the  first 
book  written  in  the  English  language  in  America.  A  little 

He  tells  of  service  as  a  soldier  in  the  Low  Countries  and  France, 
of  enforced  membership  in  a  pirate  crew  in  the  Mediterranean, 
and  of  still  more  marvelous  adventures  in  the  Far  East,  where  he 
fought  against  the  Turks.  Possibly  Smith  drew  on  his  imagination 
for  some  details  of  the  narrative  which  is  our  only  record  of  these 
early  exploits,  but  it  is  certain  that  when  he  came  to  America,  he 
was  a  man  of  vigor,  resourcefulness,  and  experience.  Most  of  his 
account  of  happenings  in  Virginia  may  be  verified  by  reference  to 
the  writings  of  others,  but  there  has  been  much  rather  profitless 
discussion  of  the  well-known  story  of  his  rescue  by  Pocahontas. 
When  Smith  made  the  expedition  on  which  the  rescue  must  have 
taken  place,  if  it  took  place  at  all,  Pocahontas  was  a  small  child ; 
and  in  the  True  Relation,  written  immediately  afterward,  he  says 
nothing  of  the  incident.  Later,  when  Pocahontas  had  married  an 
Englishman  and  was  a  social  favorite  in  London,  he  gave  out  the 
story.  It  seems  likely  that  he  invented  the  tale  to  pay  a  compli 
ment  to  Pocahontas  and  to  link  his  own  name  with  that  of  a  social 
celebrity  ;  but  it  is  possible  that  the  rescue  really  occurred,  and  that 
for  some  unknown  reason  Smith  omitted  it  from  the  True  Rela 
tion. 

1  This  title,  like  many  others  cited  in  the  early  part  of  this  history, 
is  an  abbreviation.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  time  to  make  the  title- 
page  fully  descriptive  of  a  book  and  its  contents.  Smith's  work- 
was  published  as  "A  True  Relation  of  such  occurrences  and  acci 
dents  of  noate  as  hath  hapned  in  Virginia  since  the  first  planting 
of  that  Collony,  which  is  now  resident  in  the  South  part  thereof, 
till  the  last  returne  from  thence."  For  full  titles  of  other  books 
referred  to  in  this  chapter  see  the  author's  History  of  American 
Literature,  Tyler's  History  of  American  Literature  during  the  Colo 
nial  Time,  etc. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


are  the  Lines  that JJiew    ^  ^ 

fhcyv  thy  GTHC&  and.  (flor}r,  brighter  lev  :  />> 
City  Fairc-Difioueries  anJ,JF'owle,-Overtfirt>wes    Uy 
PfSaivaaes,much,  CivittizcL  tyr 

fr^      /7      /7       *^     4          **      *      *  *  1    .         *.       y 

vintjand*  to  it  C      ^ 

witfiout,lut  (fOlaC  Within, . 


Frontispiece  to  Smith's  Map  of  New  England  with  portrait  of 
John  Smith. 


8      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

later  he  completed  and  sent  back  a  description  of  the  country 
and  its  inhabitants  which  was  published  as  A  Map  of  Vir 
ginia. 

After  his  return  to  England  in  1609  Smith  made  a  voyage 
of  exploration  to  the  coast  northward  of  Cape  Cod,  and  later 
attempted  to  found  a  colony  in  New  England.  His  expedi 
tion  was  captured  by  French  pirates,  and  after  his  release  he 
lived  quietly  in  England  until  his  death  in  IGol.  In  these 


John  Smith  held  captive  by  the  Indians.     A  picture  from 
an  .early  American  school  reader. 

later  years  he  wrote  much  about  America  and  about  coloniza 
tion  in  general,  and  he  compiled  The  General  Historic  of 
Virginia.  The  only  works  which  he  is  known  to  have 
written  in  America  are,  however,  The  True  Relation,  the 
Map  of  I  'iryinia,  and  a  long  outspoken  letter  of  complaint 
and  protest  addressed  to  the  proprietors  of  the  colony. 
These  writings  are  what  might  be  expected  from  an  un 
trained  but  forceful  Elizabethan  Englishman.  The  author 
had  no  time  to  think  of  literary  graces,  but  he  had  some 
thing  to  say,  and  he  said  it  with  the  same  directness  with 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  9 

which  he  built  a  fort  or  fought  out  a  quarrel.  Almost  every 
line  violates  some  of  the  rhetorical  rules  that  are  recognized 
to-day ;  and  even  in  his  own  time,  when  English  prose  was 
far  less  highly  developed  than  English  poetry,  his  style  must 
have  seemed  crude  and  formless.  Still,  there  are  few  sen 
tences  that  are  not  perfectly  clear  and  to  the  point.  Some 
of  Smith's  later  works,  produced  at  leisure  and  after  he  had 
more  experience  in  writing,  show  more  finish. 

Another  sort  of  Virginian  is  represented  by  WILLIAM 
STRACHEY,  who  was  appointed  secretary  of  the  colony  at 
the  same  time  Sir  Thomas  Gates  was  named  as  governor  in 
1610.  The  two  officials  were  fellow-passengers  on  a  vessel 
that  suffered  shipwreck  on  the  Bermudas,  and  they  endured 
many  hardships  before  they  finally  reached  Jamestown. 
Strachey's  only  work  of  importance  is  an  account  of  this 
experience  known  as  The  Wrack  and  Redemption  of  Sir 
Thomas  Gates.  Strachey  was  not  a  practiced  writer,  but  he 
was  evidently,  a  man  of  better  education  and  greater  ac 
quaintance  with  books  than  Smith.  The  Wrack  and  Re 
demption  is  a  studied  and  somewhat  self-conscious  attempt l 
to  describe  impressive  natural  phenomena  and  to  tell  of 
terrible  experiences.  Our  interest  in  the  work  is  increased  by 
the  fact  that  some  scholars  believe  Shakespeare  to  have  had 
it  in  mind  when  he  described  the  storm  in  the  "Tempest." 

Still  another  Englishman  who  came  to  Virginia  for  a  time 

1  Quotations  from  the  Latin  poets,  references  to  the  narratives 
of  other  travelers,  and  formally  wrought  sentences  all  show  that 
the  author  was  striving  for  what  he  considered  proper  literary  im- 
pressivenoss.  A  man  who  wrote  naturally  —  Smith,  for  example  — 
would  have  used  none  of  these  artificial  devices  in  telling  of  a  ship 
wreck  in  which  he  had  himself  suffered ;  and  a  man  of  more  literary 
training  would  have  known  that  they  were  doubtful  expedients  for 
gaining  force.  Still,  there  is  a  certain  effectiveness  in  Strachey's 
story. 


10   AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

was  GEORGE  SANDYS,  who  was  made  treasurer  of  the  colony 
in  1621.  Sandys  was  a  poet  whose  name  still  holds  a  place 
in  histories  of  English  literature,  and  his  office  was  probably 
bestowed  as  a  reward  for  his  literary  achievement.  While 
in  America,  he  completed  a  translation  of  Ovid  which  he  had 
begun  in  England.,  There  is,  of  course,  nothing  distinctively 
American  in  the  work;  and  Sandys  should  be  remembered 
only  as  a  reminder  of  the  fact  that  men  of  recognized  liter 
ary  ability  were  at  times  temporarv  residents  of  the  colonies. 
Types  of  Southern  Writers.  —  Smith,  Strachey,  and  San 
dys  typify  three  classes  of  writers  —  the  blunt  adventurer 
who  wrote  with  no  thought  of  form,  the  gentleman  who 
felt  obliged  by  his  position  to  attempt  literary  produc 
tion,  and  the  accomplished  man  of  letters  who  held  a  tem 
porary  appointment  in  the  colony.  Most  of  the  other  early 
writers  in  the  South  belonged  to  one  of  these  three  classes. 
Those  like  Smith  were  the  most  numerous.  At  first  all  Eng 
land  was  curious  regarding  the  New  World  and  its  people, 
and  almost  every  emigrant  who  could  write  sent  back  in  pri 
vate  letters,  if  not  for  publication,  accounts  of  his  experiences, 
and  descriptions  of  what  he  saw.  This  process  was  repeated 
as  each  of  the  Southern  colonies  was  founded.  Other  early 
writings  were  as  meritorious  as  those  of  Smith  and  Strachey; 
but  since  types  and  not  individuals  are  important,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  consider  them  here. 

SOUTHERN  COLONIAL  WRITINGS,  1676-1765 

Characteristics  of  the  Later  Southern  Colonists.  —  After 
the  earliest  years  of  the  Jamestown  colony,  Southerners 
wrote  less  than  might  be  expected  from  their  numbers  and 
their  importance  in  American  affairs.  This  was  due  in  part 
to  the  general  lack  of  education.  Both  the  character  of  the 


TIU-:  COLONIAL  PERIOD  11 

settlers  and  the  nature  of  the  country,  in  which  navigable 
rivers  constituted  ready-made  highways,  tended  to  encourage 
the  feudal  ideal  of  large  estates.  The  planters  lived  so  far 
apart  that  they  could  not  send  their  children  to  common 
schools,  and  it  was  difficult,  often  impossible,  to  secure  pri 
vate  tutors.  Moreover,  the  Southerner  was  usually  satisfied 
with  the  existing  condition  of  affairs  in  church  and  state, 
and  did  not,  like  the  New  Englander,  feel  that  education  was 
necessary  to  the  preservation  of  his  liberties.  Some,  at  least, 
of  the  royal  governors  quietly  discouraged  education,  in  the 
belief  that  a  people  who  did  not  read  were  more  easily  gov 
erned.  While  there  were  always  some  Southern  gentlemen 
who  had  been  trained  in  English  schools  and  universities, 
there  were  many  others  of  wealth  and  recognized  social  posi 
tion  who  were  almost  wholly  ignorant  of  books.  Schools 
were  few,  and  there  was  little  or  no  opportunity  for  printing. 
Even  Southerners  of  literary  tastes  felt,  as  did  some  of  their 
English  contemporaries,  that  literature  might  be  the  recrea 
tion,  but  never  the  business,  of  a  gentleman.  When  they 
wrote,  they  did  so  in  an  amateurish  fashion,  and  instead  of 
publishing  their  writings,  kept  them  in  manuscript  to  be 
shown  to  their  friends  and  handed  down  to  their  children.1 

As  might  be  expected  under  such  circumstances,  later 
Southern  writings  were  very  provincial.  The  Southern  far 
more  than  the  Northern  colonists  looked  to  England  for 
authority  in  all  things.  Those  who  could  afford  to  do  so 
imported  most  articles  of  furniture  and  of  dress,  and  of  course 
imported  such  books  as  they  read.  Those  who  were  sent 
abroad  for  education  went  to  England.  It  was  natural  that 
there  should  be  no  school  of  Southern  authors,  but  that  such 

1  Compare  the  feeling  of  the  sportsman  who  will  eat  his  game, 
or  present  it  to  his  friends,  but  who  will  under  no  circumstances 
sell  it. 


12      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

scattered  writings  as  were  produced  should  follow  the  latest 
literary  fashion  that  had  been  imported  from  the  mother 
country.  This  tendency  may  be  illustrated  by  reference  to 
two  or  three  representative  works. 

Later  Southern  Writings. —  Bacon's  Rebellion,  the  civil  war 
in  Virginia  in  1675-1676,  just  at  the  close  of  the  first  period, 
led  to  the  composition  of  the  Burwell  Papers.  These  pa 
pers,  which  were  found  long  afterward  among  the  archives  of 
an  old  Virginia  family,  were  evidently  written  soon  after  the 
events  they  relate,  by  some  Virginian  who  concealed  his 
name  to  insure  his  personal  safety.  They  tell  of  the  in 
surrection,  and  contain  two  poems,  one  eulogizing,  the  other 
condemning,  Bacon,  the  leader  who  opposed  the  governor. 
The  matter  is  interesting,  but  the  narrative  is  in  the  arti 
ficial  and  prolix  style  that  characterized  English  prose  just 
after  the  Restoration.  The  verse,  too,  is  in  the  rhymed 
pentameter  couplet  which  had  recently  come  into  favor  in 
England. 

Some  thirty  years  later,  in  1708,  there  was  published  in 
London  a  humorous  poem  entitled  The  Sot-Weed  Factor,  or 
a  Voyage  to  Maryland,  by  Eben.  Cook,  Gent.  This  poem, 
which  has  more  fame  than  real  importance,  is  a  satirical  ac 
count  of  the  adventures  of  a  "  factor  "  or  agent,  who  tried 
to  barter  for  "  sot-weed  "  or  tobacco  in  Maryland.  It  is 
significant  that  it  is  written  in  the  octosyllabic  couplet 
which,  since  the  appearance  of  Butler's  Hudibras,1  had  been 
the  accepted  form  for  burlesque  verse  in  England. 

1  The  characteristics  of  this  satire  on  the  English  Puritans,  written 
by  Samuel  Butler  between  1663  and  1678,  are  rather  free  and  even 
coarse  ridicule,  expressed  in  a  peculiar  jigging  eight-syllable  verse, 
and  marked  and  sometimes  ludicrous  rhymes.  It  is  now  relatively 
little  read,  but  was  a  favorite  model  for  satire,  especially  political 
satire,  in  England  and  America  for  over  a  century,  and  will  be 
frequently  referred  to  in  this  history. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


13 


More  important  than  either  of  the  works  just  mentioned 
are  the  writings  of  WILLIAM  BYRD.  Byrd  was  the  head  of  a 
wealthy  and  influential  Virginia  family,  and  a  representa 
tive  of  the  best  type  of  man  that  the  South  produced  during 
the  early  eighteenth  century.  He  had  been  educated  in 
England,  and  he  collected  a  considerable  library.  His  writ 
ings,  which  were  not  printed  in  his  lifetime,  but  were  carefully 
engrossed  on  parchment  for  transmission  to  his  descendants, 
are  sometimes  called 
the  I  I  'extover  Ma  u  u- 
scripts,  from  the  name 
of  his  family  estate. 
They  include  papers  on 
various  subjects,  the 
most  notable  being  the 
"  History  of  the  Divid 
ing  Line."  This  tells 
of  the  author's  experi 
ences  as  one  of  the 
commissioners  who,  in 
1728,  settled  the  dis 
puted  boundary  be 
tween  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina,  and 

gives  interesting,  intelligent,  and  often  humorous  descrip 
tions  of  the  wild  country  through  which  the  survey  ran. 
It  is  pleasant  reading  even  to-day,  and  though  it  has  been 
somewhat  overpraised,  is  one  of  the  best  pieces  of  writing 
done  during  the  colonial  time.  A  gentleman  of  Byrd's  train 
ing  was,  of  course,  well  read  in  the  writings  of  Addison,  Steele, 
and  other  English  essayists  of  the  early  eighteenth  century, 
and  his  style  is  evidently  modeled  on  theirs. 

The  Burwell  Papers,  the  Sot-Weed  Factor,  and  the  works 


William  Byrd. 


14      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

of  Byrd  were  written,  speaking  very  roughly,  at  intervals 
of  about  thirty  years,  and  each  follows  the  latest  fashion  in 
English  literature.  Other  Southern  writers  of  the  late 
seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  centuries  show  the  same 
imitative  tendency.  Several  of  them  produced  \vritings  of 
importance  to  the  special  student.  Indeed,  Southern  colo 
nial  literature  is  in  itself  quite  as  interesting,  and  has  at  least 
as  much  literary  merit,  as  that  of  the  North.  It  has,  however, 
no  organic  unity  and  it  exerted  far  less  influence  on  later 
American  men  of  letters  than  did  the  writings  produced  in 
New  England.  For  this  reason  it  may  be  more  hurriedly 
dismissed  by  the  general  reader. 

NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIAL  WRITINGS,  1620-1676 

Characteristics  of  the  New  England  Colonists.  —  It  is  in 
no  spirit  of  unpatriotic  sectionalism  that  the  student  of 
American  history  remarks  the  differences  which  from  the  first 
existed  between  the  North  and  the  South.  The  student  of 
American  literature,  in  particular,  must  observe  that  the 
Englishmen  who  came  to  Plymouth  in  1620  and  to  Massachu 
setts  Bay  in  1630  differed  widely  from  those  who  in  1607  had 
come  to  Jamestown.  The  early  immigrants  to  the  South 
were  actuated  chiefly  by  a  love  of  adventure  and  a  desire 
for  gain,  and  many  of  them,  probably  most  of  them,  hoped 
to  return  to  England  after  they  had  made  their  fortunes. 
The  Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans,  though  by  no  means  indiffer 
ent  to  worldly  affairs,  came  for  the  purpose  of  establishing, 
according  to  their  own  ideas,  a  permanent  home  for  them 
selves  and  their  descendants.  Still  more  important  than  this 
difference  in  purpose  was  the  underlying  difference  in  temper 
and  view  of  life.  The  founders  of  Virginia  were  representa 
tive  of  that  hearty,  energetic,  pleasure-loving  England  that 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


15 


produced,  as  its  greatest  literary  achievement,  the  Eliza 
bethan  drama.  The  Puritans  l  looked  upon  this  world  only 
as  a  preparation  for  eternal  life,  and  regarded  most  recrea 
tions  as  sin,  or  as  temptations  to  sin.2  Such  men  not  only 
failed  to  sympathize  with  the  thoughts  and  writings  of  the 
representative  Elizabethans,  but  they  condemned  such 
thoughts  and  writings  as  evil.  It  is  hard  to  realize  that  two 


Pilgrims  lauding  from  the  Mayflower.      A  picture  from  an 
early  American  geography. 

groups  of  Englishmen  who  were  so  nearly  contemporaries 
could  differ  so  widely  as  did  these  early  colonists  of  the 
North  and  the  South. 

Most  of  the  good  and  the  bad  characteristics  of  New  Eng 
land  colonial  literature  can  be  traced  to  the  characteristics 

1  Throughout  this  discussion  the  word  "Puritans"  will  often  be 
used  to  include  both  Puritans  and  Pilgrims. 

2  There  is  ;i  certain  truth  in  Macaulay's  unfair  remark  that  the 
Puritans  hated  bear-baiting  not  because  il   gave  pain  to  the  bear, 
but  because  it  gave  pleasure  to  the  spectators.     It  was  not  that 
the  Puritan  disliked  to  see  people  happy;    but  he  suspected  nearly 
everything  that  gave  happiness  of  being  some  wile  of  the  Devil  to 
distract  the  Christian's  thoughts  from  his  soul's  salvation. 


16      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


of  these  early  settlers.  Earnestness,  cleanness,  soundness 
of  moral  judgment,  and  regard  for  truth  were  due  to  the 
more  admirable  traits  of  the  authors;  on  the  other  hand  the 
artistic  limitations  in  both  kind  and  quality  of  writing  came 
from  the  peculiar  narrowness  of  the  Puritans.  Since  these 
men  rejected  as  dangerous  the  works  of  the  greater  Eliza 
bethan  poets  and  dramatists,  their  reading  was  mainly  in  the 
preachers  and  pamphleteers  who  supported  their  peculiar 
beliefs;  and  from  these  unfortunate  models  they  derived 
their  literary  style.  True,  they  were  constant  students  of 

the  Bible,  and  some 
of  the  better  quali 
ties  of  New  Eng 
land  prose  can  be 
traced  to  the  influ 
ence  of  the  noble 
King  James  ver 
sion;  but  their  rev 
erence  for  the 
sacredness  of  the 
scripture  was  so 
great  that  they 
seem  to  have  been  strangely  oblivious  to  its  literary  beauties. 
The  Puritans  were  the  champions  of  a  theological  system 
that  was  continually  assailed,  and  they  felt  that  their  chil 
dren  must  be  educated  in  order  to  defend  their  faith.  They 
established  public  schools  in  every  community.  They  founded 
Harvard  College  when  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
was  but  six  years  old.  They  set  up  a  printing  press  soon 
afterward.  Every  one  not  only  could  read  but  did  read; 
and  a  considerable  number  of  colonists  tried  their  hands  at 
such  forms  of  writing  as  the  law  and  public  sentiment  per 
mitted. 


Schoolhouse  at  Dedham,  Massachusetts  ;    built 
in  1649. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  17 

The  Early  Historians.  —  The  first  form  of  writing  in  any 
new  settlement  is  history,  or  that  which  furnishes  the  basis 
for  history.  Ordinarily  this  takes  the  form,  as  it  did  in  Vir 
ginia,  of  personal  narratives  of  experiences,  written  for  the 
most  part  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  readers  in  the  mother 
country.  The  New  Englander  believed,  however,  that  he 
was  founding  a  great  commonwealth  under  the  direct  guid 
ance  of  God,  and  men  of  weight  in  the  community  felt  it 
their  duty  to  leave  a  careful  record  for  posterity.  Thus, 
WILLIAM  BRADFORD,  governor  of  Plymouth,  wrote  a  His 
tory  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  mostly  in  the  form  of  annals, 
that  traces  the  rise  of  the  dissenters  in  England,  their  experi 
ences  in  Holland,  and  their  coming  to  America  in  the  May 
flower,  and  continues  the  history  of  the  settlement  from  1620 
to  1(347.  JOHN  WINTIIROP,  the  first  governor  of  the  colony 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  kept  a  detailed  journal  from  1630 
to  1649,  since  published  as  The  History  of  New  England. 
Neither  of  these  writers  gave  his  work  to  the  public  in  his 
lifetime,  not  because  of  any  false  ideas  of  the  dignity  of 
authorship,  but  because  he  was  writing  for  later  readers  who 
would  gladly  know  every  act  of  their  forefathers.1 

Neither  Bradford's  nor  Winthrop's  history  is  great  as  litera 
ture.  Both  men  are  likely  to  be  at  their  best  in  calm  pas 
sages  where  they  catch  something  of  the  dignity  of  scriptural 
prose.  Winthrop  had  the  better  education  and  the  broader 
experience  of  life,  but  the  diary  form  which  he  employed 

1  Bradford's  manuscript  had  an  interesting  history.  It  descended 
through  various  hands  until  the  Revolution,  when  it  disappeared 
during  the  British  occupation  of  Boston,  and  was  given  up  by 
scholars  as  lost.  In  1855  it  was  discovered  in  the  library  of  the 
Bishop  of  London,  and  in  1897  it  was  restored,  with  appropriate 
ceremonies  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  to  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts.  It  was  first  printed  in  1856,  almost  two  hundred 
years  after  the  author's  death. 


18      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


gave  little  chance  for  effective  writing.  In  the  works  of  both 
men  the  modern  reader  is  interested  in  the  contemporary 
accounts  of  important  historical  events,  and  even  more, 
perhaps,  in  the  mention  of  trivial  happenings  that  help  to 
portray  the  daily  life  of  the  people.  The  sufferings  of  the 

colonists,  the 
makeshift  ar 
rangements  by 
which  they  first 
met  the  need  for 
shelter  and  food, 
their  adven 
tures,  serious  and 
ludicrous,  with 
Indians  and  wild 
animals,  their 
experiences  in 
farming  and 
stock-raising, 
even  their  un- 
edifying  church 
and  neighbor 
hood  quarrels  — 
all  may  be  learned 
from  these  his 
tories,  and  the 

knowledge  helps  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  kind  of 
men  our  ancestors  really  were.  Especially  valuable  to  the 
student  are  passages  that  show  religious  faith  and  the  implic 
itness  of  the  belief  that  every  occurrence,  however  small, 
reveals  in  a  direct  way  the  hand  of  God. 

There  were  many  other  historical  writers  in  early  New 
England,  some  of  whom  published  their  works  at  once,  either 


John  Winthrop. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  19 

at  home  or  in  the  mother  country,  but  Bradford  and  Winthrop 
may  serve  as  representatives  of  all. 

For  the  sake  of  contrast,  mention  should  be  made  of 
THOMAS  MORTOX,  who  for  a  time  maintained  a  trading  post 
at  Merry  Mount,  near  Plymouth.  Morton  was  a  church 
man  and  a  loyalist,  a  rollicking,  irreverent  individual  who 
had  only  ridicule  and  contempt  for  his  straight-laced  neigh 
bors,  and  who  annoyed  them  in  many  ways.  In  retaliation 
they  arrested  him  and  sent  him  to  England,  where  he  was 
speedily  released.  Before  he  returned  to  renew  his  quarrel  at 
close  quarters  he  wrote  the  AY/r  Enylixh  C(.nHt<tn,i\.\\  historical 
and  descriptive  account  of  New  England  which  puts  the 
Puritans  in  a  bad  light.  Morton  was  prejudiced  and  untrust 
worthy,  but  his  lively  book  forms  a  diverting  contrast  to  the 
plodding  writings  of  his  neighbors,  and  incidentally  shows 
how  the  fathers  of  New  England  appeared  to  their  contem 
poraries  who  did  not  like  them.1 

Religious  Writings.  —  Even  more  representative  of  New 
England  than  historical  writings  were  those  on  religious 
and  theological  subjects.  The  first  Xew  Englanders,  though 

1  Morton  had  a  cheap  but  clever  humor  which  he  exercised  at  the 
expense  of  the  Puritans.  He  continually  referred  to  the  worthy  hut 
diminutive  Miles  Standish  as  "Captain  Shrimp,"  and  he  had  equally 
disrespectful  nicknames  for  other  dignitaries  of  the  colony.  He 
was  fond  of  anecdotes  like  that  of  the  guest  who  fell  to  and  ate  the 
best  part  of  the  feast  while  his  host,  with  closed  eyes,  was  saying 
a  long  New  England  grace.  It  was  Morton,  too,  who  originated  the 
old  story  that  when  an  active  young  man  had  killed  an  Indian,  the 
Puritans  hanged  an  old  bedridden  weaver  to  appease  the  savages, 
since  the  real  murderer  was  too  useful  a  man  to  be  spared. 

One  of  Morton's  most  annoying  offenses  was  the  setting  up  of  a 
Maypole  —  an  "idle  or  idol  May-pole,"  as  (iovernor  Bradford  calls 
it.  The  picturesqueness  of  Morton's  settlement,  and  the  contrast 
that  he  suggests  between  two  types  of  Englishman  have  appealed 
to  many  later  writers.  See,  for  example,  Hawthorne's  tale,  "The 
Maypole  of  Merry  Mount." 


20      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

horrified  at  the  idea  of  a  priesthood  with  temporal  authority, 
were  really  governed  by  their  ministers.  In  a  community 
which  sought  to  know  the  will  of  God  regarding  every  act 
it  was  natural  that  much  weight  should  be  given  to  the 
opinions  of  men  specially  trained  in  interpreting  the  scrip 
tures.  The  ministers  were  consulted  by  legislators  and 
governors,  they  sat  beside  the  judges  on  the  bench,  and  in 


Proud  Ktrafi'sTroofl'f, 
Was  fwallo\»'d  up 


Lai  fled  to  Zxtr,  ..' 
Saw  fiery  Shower  " 
OiiStdan  pour.  •',' 


Was  ht  U-; 
Who  JJrotft  Holt  •':: 
Led  thro*  the  Sea,  :-  v 


Pages  from  the  New  England  Primer. 

many  ways,  open  and  private,  they  influenced  public  affairs. 
In  general  they  were  a  body  of  men  worthy  the  confidence 
they  received.  Most  of  them,  in  the  early  years,  were 
graduates  of  English  universities,  and  many  of  them  had 
distinguished  themselves  as  scholars  and  preachers  in  Eng 
land.  Their  publications  were  mostly  sermons  and  pam 
phlets,  but,  as  may  be  guessed  from  the  scope  of  their  activi 
ties,  they  did  not  confine  themselves  wholly  to  theological 
questions. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


21 


Probably  the  most  notable  of  the  early  New  England 
divines  was  JOHN  COTTON,  who  came  to  Massachusetts  Bay 
in  1633,  and  ministered  to  the  first  church  of  Boston  until 
his  death.1  Only  a  little  less  famous  than  Cotton  were 
THOMAS  HOOKER  and  THOMAS  SHEPARD.  Hooker  first 
preached  at  Cambridge,  Massachu 
setts,  and  then,  with  his  congregation, 
marched  through  the  wilderness  and 
founded  the  town  of  Hartford,  Con 
necticut.  Shepard  succeeded  Hooker 
in  the  pulpit  at  Cambridge.  Cotton, 
Hooker,  and  Shepard,  as  well  as  many 
others  almost  as  famous  in  their  day, 
were  graduates  of  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  and  had  been  preachers  of 
distinction  in  England  before  they 
were  expelled  by  Archbishop  Laud  for 
nonconformity. 

It  is  somewhat  hard  to  see,  from 
reading  the  works  of  these  men,  where 
in  their  powrer  consisted.  Their  pub 
lished  writings  were  largely  sermons, 
often  with  such  uninspiring  titles'  as  "  The  Saint's  Dig 
nity  and  Duty,"  "  A  Treatise  concerning  Predestination." 
These  were  long  discussions  —  two  hours  was  an  ordinary 

1  Cotton  was  a  famous  Puritan  preacher  in  England  —  so  famous 
that  even  before  there  was  any  thought  of  his  coming  to  A  incricu  1  he 
town  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  was  named  in  his  honor  after  Boston, 
England,  where  he  preached.  Naturally  the  citizens  saw  a  special 
dispensation  of  Providence  in  the  fact  that  he  was  afterward  brought 
among  them.  Cotton  is  credited  with  a  hand  in  the  preparation 
of  the  New  England  Primer  which  was  used  by  beginners  in  learning 
for  over  a  century  and  a  half ;  and  he  was  the  author  of  the  famous 
catechism  for  children  commonly  known  by  the  abbreviated  title 
of  Spiritual  Milk  for  Boston  Babes. 


Statue  of  Thomas  Hooker 
at  Hartford. 


22       AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


THE 

SIMPLE    COBLER 


WILLING 

To  help  "mend  hi<  Native  Coumry,  la- 
mcnubty  caKereJ,b<xh  in  the  upper-  Leather     ' 

And  «  willing  never  to  bee  paid  for  his  work, ' 
by  Old  Englitb  wonted  [ay. 

/i  «  /•»  Tr *&•  f  •;•<«:'>  J7  f  if  jf«r  lt*£t  grit  i  J- 
Thettforc  1  pny  Coukaca  ktcp  you/  putfri. 


length  for  a  sermon,  and  four  hours  was  not  unknown ;  and 
they  were  divided  into  numbered  headings  and  subheadings 
for  the  convenience  of  the  hearers,  many  of  whom  brought 
pencil  and  paper  to  church  and  took  notes.  A  few,  which 
were  intended  to  arouse  apathetic  sinners,  contained  vivid 
descriptions  of  the  tortures  awaiting  lost  souls  in  the  next 
world;  but  the  greater  number  were  theological  and  ap 
pealed  to  the  intellect  rather  than 
to  the  emotions. 

The  ministers  also  wrote  con 
troversial  pamphlets,  many  of 
which  resembled  the  sermons  in 
subjects  and  form.1  One,  the 
Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawamm,  by 
NATHANIEL  WARD,  is  peculiar 
enough  to  be  a  literary  curiosity. 
Ward  had  been  a  lawyer  and  had 
seen  something  of  the  world  before 
he  came  to  America  in  1634  and 
served  for  three  years  as  pastor 
of  the  church  at  Agawam,  now 
Ips\vich.  The  Simple  Cobler, 
which  was  published  in  London  in  1647,  is  a  tirade  against 
toleration  in  religious  belief,  and  against  many  other  things 
of  which  the  author  disapproved,  among  them  the  fashions 
in  women's  dress  and  the  wearing  of  long  hair  by  the  men. 
It  was  really  addressed  to  English  rather  than  to  American 
readers,  and  was  calculated  to  influence  the  unthinking 

1  Many  of  these  controversies  were  over  abstruse  theological 
points,  or  such  questions  as  the  proper  mode  of  baptism.  Others 
were  over  such  matters  as  the  right  of  women  to  sing  in  churches 
—  one  party  taking  the  admonition  in  I  Cor.  xiv :  34  with  extreme 
literalness,  another  holding  that  it  applied  only  to  speaking. 


Title-page  of  Th 
Cobler. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  23 

London  rabble  rather  than  the  more  earnest  New  Englanders. 
The  author's  method  is  one  of  bitter  ridicule  and  vitupera 
tion,  and  he  is  fond  of  using  long  and  barbarously  coined 
words  to  characterize  the  things  that  he  disapproves.1  The 
ideas  expressed  in  the  Simple  Cobler  are  contemptible  for 
their  narrowness,  and  the  style  is  by  no  means  typical  of 
the  New  England  controversialists;  but  its  oddities  have 
given  it  a  certain  notoriety  while  duller  though  more  impor 
tant  pamphlets  are  forgotten. 

Verse  Writing  in  Early  New  England.  —  Aside  from  his 
torical,  religious,  and  controversial  prose  little  was  written  in 
New  England  during  the  early  years.  There  was  no  drama, 
no  fiction,  and  practically  nothing  in  the  form  of  prose  essays 
—  these  forms  were  regarded  with  abhorrence,  or  at  least 
with  distrust  —  and  in  poetry  there  were  only  a  few  crude 
attempts.  It  is  true  that  many  persons  wrote  verse,  often, 
it  would  seem,  for  no  other  reason  than  to  vary  the  monotony 
of  their  prose.  Even  Governor  Bradford,  who  was  surely 
far  from  being  a  poet,  wrote  in  rhymes  of  the  geography  and 
the  natural  products  of  New  England.2  Perhaps  the  most 
common  use  of  verse  was  in  memorials  of  the  dead,  and 
there  have  come  down  to  us  many  epitaphs  and  rhymed 
obituaries  at  which  even  the  most  reverent  reader  is  tempted 
to  smile. 


1  Thus,  in  speaking  of  fashions  in  dress  he  says:    "It  is  a  most 
unworthy  thing,  for  men  that  have  bones  in  them,  to  spend  their 
lives  in  making  fidle-cases  for  futulous  womens  phansies :    which 
are  the  very  pettitoes  of  Infirmity,  the  giblets  of  perquisquilian 
toyes." 

2  A  few  lines  chosen  at  random  will  serve  as  an  illustration : 

"All  sorts  of  grain  which  our  <>\VM  land  doth  yield, 
Was  hither  brought,  and  sown  in  every  field  : 
As  wheat  and  ry<-,  liarley,  oats,  heans,  and  pease 
Here  all  thrive,  and  they  profit  from  them  raise." 


24       AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Another  peculiar  specimen  of  versification  owed  its  exist 
ence  to  the  feeling  that  the  translation  of  the  Psalms  which 
was  sung  by  the  English  Puritans  was  not  sufficiently  literal. 
Accordingly,  the  ministers  appointed  a  committee  of  their 
number  to  prepare  a  version  which  should  adhere  strictly 
to  the  original  Hebrew,  and  which  could  be  used  with  the 
tunes  then  in  vogue.  The  result  of  their  labors  was  the 
Bay  Psalm  Book,  which  was  published  at  Cambridge  in  1640, 
and  which,  it  may  be  noted,  was  the  first  book  printed  in 
Xew  England.  Nothing  illustrates  better  than  the  Bay 
Psalm  Book  the  way  in  which  the  Puritan's  beliefs  influenced 
his  view  of  literary  excellence.  Since  the  Bible  was  the  word 
of  God,  the  word  must  be  preserved  in  literal  exactness  at 
whatever  cost.  In  order  to  secure  accuracy  the  translators 
willingly  sacrificed  not  only  beauty  of  verse  form,  but  all  the 
simple  dignified  expression  of  feeling  that  abounds  so  wonder 
fully  in  the  King  James  version.1 

Three  Massachusetts  poets  who  wrote  toward  the  close  of 
the  period  deserve  brief  mention.  The  best  of  these  was 
ANNE  BRADSTREET,  the  daughter  of  Governor  Dudley  and 
the  wife  of  Governor  Bradstreet.  She  was  born  in  England 
and  came  to  America  with  her  father  and  her  husband  in 

1  Compare  two  verses  from  the  ninety-fifth  Psalm : 

"Because  hee  is  our  God,  &  wee 

his  pasture  people  are, 
&  of  his  hands  the  sheep :  today 

if  yee  his  voyce  will  heare, 
As  in  the  provocation, 

o  harden  not  your  heart : 
as  in  day  of  temptation, 
within  the  vast  desart." 

Still  better,  if  you  have  access  to  a  reprint  of  the  Bay  Psalm  Book, 
find  how  some  of  your  favorite  passages  of  the  Psalms  are  trans 
lated. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


25 


1630.  Although  she  was  the  mother  of  eight  children  and  per 
formed  all  the  numerous  duties  of  a  New  England  housewife, 
she  found  time  to  write  a  considerable  body  of  verse.  Several 
of  her  poems  were  published  in  London  in  1650  with  the  un 
fortunate  title  —  for  which  the  modest  Mrs.  Bradstreet  was 
not  at  all  responsible  —  of  The 
Tenth  Muse  lately  Sprung  up  in 
America.  The  longer  poems, 
such  as  "The  Four  Monarchies," 
"The  Four  Elements,"  "The 
Four  Ages  of  Man,"  are  rhymed 
history,  rhymed  science,  and 
rhymed  moralizing,  and  they 
illustrate  the  Puritan  feeling 
that  literature  to  be  worth  while 
must  definitely  teach  something. 
But  Mrs.  Bradstreet  also  wrote 
a  few  short  poems  that  are  not 
inartistic-ally  done.  Of  these  the 
best  is  probably  "  Contempla 
tions." 

More  famous  in  his  own  day 
was  MICHAEL  WIGGLESWORTH,  for  many  years  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Maiden,  Massachusetts.  Wigglesworth's 
chief  work  was  the  Day  of  Doom,  a  long  poem  in  jigging 
eight-line  stanzas,  which  describes  the  last  judgment  and 
expounds  in  rhyme  many  of  the  doctrines  of  Calvinism.1 
The  theme  is  a  noble  one,  but  the  poem  is  little  better  than 
doggerel. 

It  is  a  sad  fact  that  the  Day  of  Doom  had  a  degree  of  popu 
larity  probably  never  attained  by  any  other  American  poem. 

'Each  class  of  sinners  —  for  example.  Hit-  heathen  who  never 
heard  of  Christ,  and  the  infants  \\lio  died  at  birth  —  is  allowed  to 


Title-page  of  Anne  Bradstreet'a 
first  volume  of  poems. 


26       AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

For  over  a  hundred  years  it  was  read  by  every  devout  New 
Englander,  and  many  persons,  young  and  old,  knew  its  two 
hundred  and  eight  stanzas  by  heart.  It  must  have  had  a 
considerable  influence  in  continuing  the  low  standard  of 
poetry  which  it  represents. 

A  third  writer  of  verse  was  PETER  FOLGER,  Nantucket 
farmer  and  land  surveyor,  a  man  with  little  education,  but 
with  decided  views  of  his  own.  In  1675,  at  the  very  close  of 
the  first  colonial  period,  he  wrote  "  A  Looking  Glass  for  the 
Times,"  a  ballad  in  which  he  expressed  frankly  his  opinions 
of  the  ministers  and  the  magistrates  —  so  frankly,  indeed, 
that  he  evidently  thought  it  prudent  not  to  publish  the  poem. 
As  poetry,  Folger's  work  is  beneath  notice,  but  it  serves  to 
remind  us  that  from  the  first  there  lived  in  New  England 
a  large  number  of  plain,  rude,  hard-headed  men  who  thought 
for  themselves,  though  they  wrote  and  published  little,  and 
whose  views  were  often  at  variance  with  those  of  the  rulers 
in  church  and  state.  It  will  be  found  that  at  a  later  date 

plead  its  cause,  and  each  is  answered  by  the  Judge.  This  gives  an 
opportunity  to  state  many  of  the  objections  often  raised  against 
Calvinism,  and  to  give  in  easily  remembered  rhymes  the  arguments 
by  which  these  objections  were  met.  A  few  lines  of  the  answer  to 
the  infants,  who  protested  against  being  condemned  for  Adam's 
sin,  runs : 

"Would  you  have  griev'd  to  have  receiv'd 

through  Adam  so  much  good, 
As  had  been  your  for  evermore, 

if  he  at  first  had  stood  ? 
Would  you  have  said,  'We  ne'er  obey'd 

nor  did  thy  laws  regard  ; 
It  ill  befits  with  benefits, 
us,  Lord,  to  so  reward  ?  ' 

"Since  then  to  share  in  his  welfare, 

you  could  have  been  content, 
You  may  with  reason  share  in  his  treason, 
and  in  the  punishment." 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  27 

these  practical  Yankees  exerted  a  great  influence  on  the  in 
tellectual  life  of  America  —  an  influence  typified  in  the 
career  of  Folger's  most  distinguished  grandson,  Benjamin 
Franklin. 

NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIAL  WRITINGS,  1676-1765 

General  Conditions  in  the  Later  Colonial  Period.  —  The 
same  literary  deficiencies  that  were  noticed  in  the  early  period 
of  New  England  were  characteristic  of  all  but  the  latest  years 
of  the  second  period.  Unlike  the  Southerners,  the  New 
Englanders  isolated  themselves  as  far  as  possible  from  Eng 
land.  Except  for  the  few  years  when  Cromwell's  party  was 
in  control  in  the  mother  country  both  political  and  religious 
considerations  urged  the  New  England  Puritan  to  live  his 
own  life,  to  supply  his  own  wants.  In  literature,  in  particu 
lar,  the  New  Englander  kept  almost  unchanged  the  unfor 
tunate  ideals  with  which  he  started  in  1620.  No  copy  of 
Shakespeare  was  offered  for  sale  in  New  England  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years  after  the  settlement  of  Plymouth; 
and  later  writers  of  merit  had  almost  as  little  influence  as 
the  Elizabethans.  Even  Milton,  Puritan  though  he  was, 
seems  to  have  been  neglected  in  New  England  until  well 
into  the  eighteenth  century.  While  a  few  writings  of  dis 
tinction  were  produced  in  New  England  between  1676  and 
1765,  it  may  be  doubted  if  the  average  of  literary  merit 
was  as  high  as  in  the  earlier  period.  The  graduates  of 
Harvard  College  were  hardly  so  well  equipped  for  authorship 
as  were  the  early  ministers  who  had  been  trained  in  the 
English  universities. 

Historical  Writings.  —  As  in  the  first  colonial  period,  his 
torical  and  religious  prose  wras  produced  in  abundance.  The 
nature  of  many  historical  writings  wras  determined  by  the 


28       AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

French  and  Indian  Wars,  the  troubles  with  the  Indians 
which  broke  out  about  1676,  and  continued  at  intervals  until 
the  Revolution.  Some  of  these  narratives  were  written  only 
to  gratify  seasonable  curiosity.  Others  were  intended  to  con 
demn  or  defend  the  dealings  of  the  government  with  the  In 
dians.  Still  others,  among  them  an  interesting  history  by 
Increase  Mather,  aimed  to  show  that  the  Lord  was  using  the 


A  night  attack  by  the   Indians.     A  picture  from  an  early 
American  school  reader. 

savages  to  punish  the  people  for  lack  of  religious  zeal.  These 
histories  were  important  as  a  group,  but  their  names  and  their 
authors  need  not  be  given  here. 

The  most  interesting  of  the  writings  called  forth  by  the 
Indian  troubles  were  those  which  recounted  the  experiences 
of  persons  who  were  held  as  prisoners  by  the  savages,  and  who 
were  afterward  ransomed  or  made  their  escape.  There  were 
many  of  these,  but  two  are  especially  famous.  One  is  the 
narrative  of  MARY  RoWLANDSON,  wife  of  the  pastor  at  Lan 
caster,  Massachusetts,  who  was  taken  prisoner  in  1676.  The 
other,  The  Redeemed  Captive  Returning  to  Zion,  is  the  work  of 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  29 

the  REVEREND  JOHN  WILLIAMS,  minister  at  Deerfield,  who  was 
captured  and  taken  to  Canada  in  1704.  Both  these  authors 
wrote  ostensibly  to  show  the  goodness  which  God  manifested 
toward  them,  and  they  probably  adhered  strictly  to  facts. 
This  can  hardly  be  said  of  some  writers  who  followed  them. 
In  an  age  when  there  were  no  novels  and  romances,  narra 
tives  like  these  furnished  the  nearest  equivalent  for  the 
"  Wild  West  "  stories  and  the  tales  of  adventure  that  have 
gratified  a  later  generation.  Throughout  the  eighteenth 
century  there  were  many  of  these  accounts  of  captivity; 
and  though  they  were  usually  written  by  clergymen  or  were 
accompanied  by  a  testimonial  from  the  pastor  of  the  author, 
many  of  them  were  evidently  colored  to  make  the  story  at 
tractive  and  exciting.  They  probably  stood  in  a  closer  re 
lation  than  has  been  supposed  to  the  Indian  tales  of  a  later 
date. 

The  second  colonial  period  in  Xew  England  also  produced 
historians  who  were  not  especially  concerned  with  Indian 
warfare.  The  greatest  of  these  was  THOMAS  PRINCE,  pastor 
of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston,  who  apparently  had  more 
of  the  spirit  of  the  modern  historian  than  any  other  American 
of  the  colonial  time.  THOMAS  HUTCHINSON,  the  last  royal 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  also  collected  documents  and 
wrote  a  valuable  history  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  The  student 
of  American  literature  need  not  trouble  himself  much  about 
either  of  these  men;  but  they  are  a  reminder  that  the  histori 
cal  spirit,  shown  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  Bradford  and 
\Yinthrop  and  in  the  nineteenth  by  Bancroft,  Prescott, 
Motley,  Parkman,  and  others,  was  always  strong  in  New 
England. 

Of  the  men  who  left  material  of  value  to  the  later  historian 
the  most  important  was  JUDGE  SAMTEL  SEWALL,  whose 
diary  covers  the  period  from  IGT.'i  to  1 729.  After  his  gradua- 


30      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

tion  from  Harvard,  Sewall  was  college  librarian,  then  studied 
for  the  ministry,  and  finally  entered  business  and  politics. 
Among  other  public  positions  he  held  the  office  of  probate 
judge,  and  as  such  took  part  in  the  trials  for  witchcraft  at 
Salem.  His  public  avowal  of  repentance  for  this  part,  at  a 
time  when  most  of  his  associates  maintained  that  they  were 
in  the  right,  is  an  act  that  showed  bravery  and  nobility  of 
character.  Judge  Sewall  was  a  fine  type  of  New  Englander, 
and  our  liking  for  him  is  not  diminished  by  the  frank  revela 
tion  which  his  diary  gives  of  various  foibles  and  weaknesses. 
Few  writings  produced  in  the  colonial  time  are  more  interest 
ing  than  this  gossipy  diary,  or  more  valuable  to  the  student 
of  colonial  life  and  customs. 

Religious  Writings.  —  The  position  of  the  ministers  in 
New  England  changed  somewhat  during  the  second  colonial 
period.  As  the  people  became  more  prosperous  in  a  worldly 
way,  they  tended  to  become  less  devout,  and  to  pay  less  at 
tention  to  the  advice  of  their  spiritual  leaders.  Under  the 
new  charter  of  Massachusetts,  granted  by  William  and  Mary, 
the  right  to  vote  was  not  based,  as  before,  on  church  member 
ship,  but  on  a  property  qualification.  This  change  tended 
to  weaken  the  power  of  the  clergy  in  political  affairs.  Much 
of  the  writing  of  the  ministers  during  the  later  seventeenth 
and  early  eighteenth  centuries  was  in  protest,  direct  and  in 
direct,  against  this  decrease  in  their  influence.  From  the 
many  learned  divines  of  the  time  three  stand  out  with 
especial  prominence  —  Increase  Mather,  Cotton  Mather, 
and  Jonathan  Edwards. 

INCREASE  MATHER  (1639-1723)  and  his  son  Cotton  (1663- 
1728)  were  the  leaders  in  the  fight  to  retain  the  old-time  power 
of  the  church.  Increase  Mather  was  the  son  of  a  distin 
guished  Massachusetts  clergyman,  and  his  wife  was  a 
daughter  of  John  Cotton.  After  receiving  his  education  at 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


31 


Harvard  and  in  Dublin,  he  was  called  to  the  pulpit  of  the  Old 
North  Church,  Boston,  where  he  and  his  son  preached  for 
nearly  seventy  years.  He  was  also  for  some  years  president 
of  Harvard  College.  In  1688  he  was  sent  to  England  as  spe 
cial  representative  of  the  colony,  and  was  instrumental 
in  securing  the  new  colonial  charter.  His  son  Cotton,  though 
long  regarded  as  the  leading  intellectual  light  of  New  England, 
had  a  less  eventful  career.  After  his  graduation  from  Har 
vard,  he  was  settled  as  col 
league  of  his  father,  and  he 
continued  his  connection 
with  the  Old  North  Church 
until  his  death. 

When  in  1692  the  witch 
craft  excitement  broke  out 
at  Salem,  both  Increase  and 
Cotton  Mather  were  greatly 
interested.  They  believed, 
as  did  the  majority  of  edu 
cated  men  of  the  time,  that 
there  might  be  witches,  and 
both  of  them  wrote  in  sup 
port  of  this  belief.  Cotton 
Mather  took  part  in  the  dis 
covery  and  trial  of  the  accused  persons.  Much  has  been 
written  on  the  motives  which  actuated  the  Mathers  in 
this  affair.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that,  while  their  inclina 
tions  led  them  to  be  overcredulous,  they  were  conscientious. 
Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  history  which  In 
crease  Mather  wrote  in  1677  to  show  that  the  Indian  wars 
were  sent  by  God  to  punish  the  people  for  lack  of  faith. 
By  the  time  of  the  Salem  excitement  the  people  were  still 
more  inclined  to  treat  lightly  religion  and  the  ministerial 


Cotton  Mather. 


32      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

authority.  It  was  probably  natural  that  the  Mathers  should 
be  ready'  to  believe  that  God  had  permitted  the  scourge  of 
witchcraft  as  a  still  more  awful  warning,  and  it  is  surely 
natural  that  if  they  believed  this  they  should  make  the  most, 
in  sermons  and  writings,  of  so  powerful  an  argument. 

Both  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather  were  voluminous  writers. 
The  father  is  said  to  have  published  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  separate  works,  and  the  son  is  credited  with  more 
than  four  hundred.  .Many  of  these  were  sermons  and  small 
pamphlets,  but  others  were  of  great  bulk.  One  of  the  most 
interesting,  though  not  the  most  valuable,  of  Increase 
Mather's  books  is  his  Essay  for  the  Recording  of  Illustrious 
Providences,  in  which  he  tells  many  stories  of  the  direct  in 
tervention  of  God  in  human  affairs.  This  was  published  in 
1GS4,  but  it  shows  the  same  pious  credulity  that  was  mani 
fested  in  the  witchcraft  delusions  a  few  years  later. 

The  bulkiest  and  probably  the  most  important  of  COTTON 
MATHER'S  many  writings  is  the  Magnolia  Christi  Americana, 
or  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Xe/c  England,  published  in  Lon 
don  in  1702.  This  tells  of  the  settlement  of  New  England 
and  of  the  establishment  and  experiences  of  the  churches, 
and  gives  brief  biographies  of  the  governors  and  of  many 
famous  ministers.  It  was  written  too  hurriedly  to  be  wholly 
accurate,  but  it  is  the  only  authority  for  many  facts  in  early 
New  England  history.  Another  work  often  referred  to  is  the 
Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World,  in  which  Cotton  Mather 
philosophizes  over  witchcraft  in  general,  and  gives  some  ac 
count  of  the  happenings  at  Salem  as  he  saw  them. 

To  many  readers  to-day  the  Essay  for  the  Recording  of 
Illustrious  Providences  and  the  Wonders  of  the  Invisible 
World  are  the  most  interesting  writings  of  Increase  and 
Cotton  Mather,  respectively.  One  who  judges  these  in  the 
light  of  modern  science  is  likely  to  form  the  erroneous  idea 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


33 


Shing*  for  a  Pitt;cf«'Dl3eopte  totfrmb  upon- 


that  the  authors  were  absurdly  superstitious  and  unreasoning. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  their  beliefs  regarding  witchcraft  were 
shared  by  the  great  mass  of  educated  men  throughout  the 
world,  and  both  in  intellectual  power  and  in  learning  they 
ranked  high  among  the  English-speaking  divines  of  their  age. 
They  were  interested  not  only  in  theology  but  in  such  science 
as  was  then  known,1  and  in  all 
the  practical  affairs  of  life;  and 
they  wrote  much  that  tended 
toward  the  social  betterment  of 
the  people.  Increase  Mather,  in 
particular,  was  a  man  of  sanity 
and  balance,  who  had  much  ex 
perience  in  the  world  and  under 
stood  life.  His  literary  style  is 
not  remarkable,  but  he  usually 
wrote  simply  and  plainly.  Cot 
ton  Mather  was  probably  abler 
and  was  certainly  more  learned 
then  his  father,  but  he  had  been 
somewhat  spoiled  as  a  youth,  and 
he  never  had  the  experience  of 
travel  and  intercourse  with  men 
that  would  have  helped  him  to 
a  saner  estimate  of  his  own  im 
portance.  His  writings,  while  they  have  certain  formal  liter 
ary  merits,  are  often  crowded  with  pedantic  displays  of 

1  Cotton  Mather  corresponded  with  some  of  the  most  noted 
scientists  of  England.  At  one  time  he  incurred  great  popular  dis 
like  because  he  favored  inoculation  for  the  smallpox,  which  before 
the  discovery  of  vaccination  was  the  most  effective  method  of  re 
ducing  the  dangers  of  the  disease.  Many  persons  regarded  it  as 
wrong,  since,  they  said,  it  was  an  attempt  to  interfere  in  a  matter 
thai  should  be  left  to  Providence. 


Offered  in  the 

SERMON 

To  \\KGeneralAffemltly  of  the  Province, 

of  the   Maffacbufetts-Bay,  at  the 

Anniverfary     ELECTION. 

May,  1.7.   1696. 

Wherein, 

L  The  Condition  of  the  Future,  as  well 
as  the  Former,  TIMES,  in  which  we 
are  concerned,  is  Confidered. 

II.  A,  Narrative  of  the  late  Wonderful 
•  Deliverance,  of  the  KING,  snd  the 
three  KINGDOMS.&  all  the  Englifii 
DOMINIONS,  is  Endeavoured. 

HI.  A  Relation,  of  no  lefsthan  SEVEN  MI 
RACLES,  within  this  little  while  wrought 
by  the  Almighty  Lord  "Jffu^  4Tt)rift,  tor 
the  Confirmation  of  our  Hopes,  that  Ibme 
Clarims  tfMj.lorthe  welfare  of  HisChurcll, 
are  qcickly  to  be  done,  k  annexed. 


By     COTTON     MOTHER. 


i/lon  in  N  £  Printed  by  B  Grcn,  and  ?.  Alien, 

for  Duncan  Cattfhcl  at  his  Shop  owr-agajftft 

/ihe  Old-Mt et  inz  .  Houfc.      1696. 

Title-page  of  a  sermon  by 
Cotton  Mather. 


34      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

learning,  far-fetched  allusions,  high-sounding  words,  and 
quotations  from  foreign  languages.  Both  the  Mathers, 
and  especially  Cotton,  were  men  of  the  sort  that  one  is 


Jonathan  Edwards. 


always  tempted  to  praise  or  to  blame  indiscriminately,  and 
the  student  should  take  pains  to  note  both  their  good  and 
their  bad  qualities. 

JONATHAN  EDWARDS  (1703-1758)  lived  and  wrote  a  few 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  35 

years  later  than  the  Mathers,  when  the  question  of  ministe 
rial  power  had  taken  on  a  slightly  different  aspect.  A  period 
of  comparative  religious  apathy  was  followed  about  1735  or 
1740  by  an  emotional  religious  revival  known  as  the  Great 
Awakening.  One  of  the  earliest  manifestations  of  this  revival 
was  in  Edwards's  parish  at  Northampton,  Massachusetts, 
and  Edwards  published  an  account  of  it  commonly  known 
a>  Narrative  of  Surprising  Conversions.  About  the  time  of 
these  revivals  there  was  an  increase  in  the  number  of  sermons 
which  pictured  the  torments  of  the  wicked  in  the  future  life. 
Edwards  delivered  several  of  these,  and  one,  entitled  "  Sin 
ners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God  "  is  especially  famous. 
It  was  not  really,  however,  as  an  emotional  exhorter  that 
Jonathan  Edwards  was  most  important.  The  greater  num 
ber  of  his  sermons  were  models  of  clear  intellectual  reasoning 
on  questions  of  theology  and  practical  religion,  and  his  master 
piece,  the  so-called  Treatise  on  the  Freedom  of  the  Will,1  is 
still  thought  by  many  critics  to  be  the  greatest  work  on  meta 
physics  by  an  American  author.  His  power  comes  from  his 
apparent  intellectual  honesty,  his  directness  of  thought,  and 
a  sort  of  liquid  clearness  of  style  that  is  in  marked  contrast 
to  the  involved  and  turgid  sentences  of  Cotton  Mather. 
He  had,  too,  a  fine  personal  quality,  and  a  poetic  feeling 
which  are  seldom  shown  in  his  philosophical  treatises  or  his 
harsh  threats  of  future  punishment.  The  careful  student 
will  find  him  the  strongest  and  the  most  fascinating  figure  in 
the  New  England  colonies. 

Other  Forms  of  Writing.  —  During  much  of  the  second 
colonial  period  the  attitude  of  the  New  Englander  toward 

1  In  this  he  discusses  the  apparent  conflict  between  the  belief 
that  God  determines  every  event,  however  small,  and  the  belief 
that  man  is  free  to  choose  between  good  and  evil  actions,  and  is 
responsible  for  his  choice. 


36      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

polite  letters  continued  the  same  as  in  the  early  seventeenth 
century.  There  was  no  drama,  and  no  avowed  fiction, 
though  as  has  been  seen  accounts  of  experiences  among  the 
Indians  probably  stretched  the  truth.  The  Restoration 
prose  and  the  verse  of  Butler  and  of  Dryden,  which  set  the 
literary  fashions  in  the  South,  found  for  many  years  no 
imitators  in  New  England.  Even  the  writers  of  Queen 
Anne's  time  seem  to  have  passed  unnoticed.  Toward  the 
end  of  the  period,  however,  a  few  young  men  took  to  writing 
verse  in  the  heroic  couplet  and  essays  in  the  manner  of  the 
Spectator.  Generally  speaking,  however,  the  influence  of 
Butler,  Pope,  and  Addison  was  not  strongly  shown  in  New 
England  until  the  Revolutionary  period. 

WRITINGS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES 

General  Conditions.  —  The  Middle  colonies  were  founded 
so  late  that  for  them  there  was  virtually  but  one  period  in 
the  colonial  time.  Indeed,  though  there  was  some  writing 
in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  it  was  only  in  Pennsylvania 
that  any  notable  results  in  literature  were  achieved  before 
the  Revolution. 

Pennsylvania  resembled  the  South  in  the  fact  that  men 
were  free  to  read  all  kinds  of  English  literature;  in  the  more 
favored  parts  it  resembled  New  England  in  the  attention 
given  to  education,  in  facilities  for  printing,  and  in  the  fact 
that  in  Philadelphia  a  considerable  number  of  men  with 
literary  tastes  were  so  closely  associated  that  they  could 
stimulate  each  other.  It  may  be  helpful  to  remember  that 
the  greatest  Philadelphia  author  was  a  native  of  Boston  who 
came  in  early  youth  into  the  freer  atmosphere  of  the  Penn 
sylvania  city. 

Franklin  and  his  Associates.  —  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  was 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 

a  grandson  of  Peter  Folger,  who  has  already  been  mentioned, 
and  his  family  were  typical  representatives  of  the  class  of 
practical  men  to  which  Folger  belonged.  His  early  life 
should  l>e  learned  from  his  Autobiography,  and  only  the 
barest  outline  can  be  given  here.  His  father,  a  hardworking 
maker  of  soap  and  candles  in  Boston,  reared  a  family  of  seven 
teen  children,  and  was  naturally  forced  to  practice  in  the 
strictest  fashion  the  virtues  of  thrift  and  economy.  At  the 
age  of  twelve  Benjamin,  a  bright  but  probably  conceited  boy, 
was  set  to  learn  the  printer's  trade.  A  little  later  he  found 
an  odd  volume  of  the  Spectator,  and  deliberately  took  this 
as  the  model  for  his  prose  style.  At  the  age  of  seventeen 
he  ran  away  to  Philadelphia,  where  by  his  cleverness  and 
industry  he  rose  to  a  place  of  distinction  in  the  community. 
He  took  a  leading  part  in  many  movements,  such  as  those  to 
establish  a  public  library,  and  a  fire  company,  to  improve  the 
police  system,  and  to  found  a  college.1  He  published  a  news 
paper,  a  magazine,  and  a  series  of  almanacs,  and  he  did  so 
muph  for  the  art  of  printing  that  the  printers  of  America 
have  ever  since  observed  his  birthday  as  that  of  a  patron 
saint.  At  the  same  time  he  dabbled  in  political  affairs,  and 
conducted  the  experiments  that  showed  the  identity  of 
lightning  and  electricity.  At  the  age  of  forty-two  he  had 
amassed  enough  property  to  warrant  his  retirement  from 
business,  and  he  planned  to  devote  the  rest  of  his  life  to  scien 
tific  research.  His  reputation  for  practical  sense  and  skill 
in  managing  men  \vas  so  great,  however,  that  his  fellow- 
citizens  continually  called  for  his  assistance  during  the 
troubled  times  that  soon  began,  and  until  his  death  in  1790, 
at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  he  was  almost  continually  occupied 
in  political  affairs  at  home  and  abroad.  He  was  member  of 
the  assembly,  postmaster  general,  agent  for  Pennsylvania 

1  Now  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 


38      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


Benjamin  Franklin. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


39 


-Poor  Ricbard,'l'm.  . 


Almanack 

I  01  the  Year  of  Ch:i« 

1  7  3  3 


' 


.Being  the  Firfl  after  I  EAP  YPAR: 


:  ']!*,,!>  »  »Mi« 


,JSj 


at  London,  member  of  the  congress  that  adopted  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  special  commissioner  to  Franc;?  during 
the  Revolution,  and  member  of  the  constitutional  convention. 

One  of  Franklin's  biographers  has  happily  called  him 
"  The  Many-sided  Franklin."  He  was  statesman,  scientist, 
inventor,  and  business  man,  as  well  as  man  of  letters.  He 

was  greater  in  some  of  these  other    __ 

fields  of  activity  than  in  literature, 
and  his  literary  taste  was  defective ; 
yet  he  has  left  the  earliest  writings 
which  hold  unquestioned  rank  as 
American  classics. 

For  the  student  of  literature  three 
works  stand  out  from  the  mass  of 
Franklin's  writings  —  the  "Poor 
Richard  Sayings,"  the  Autobiog 
raphy,  and  the  "Bagatelles."  The 
"  Poor  Richard  Sayings  "  were  first 
published  in  Poor  Richard's  Almanac, 
which  Franklin  edited  while  he  was 
a  printer  in  Philadelphia.  Later  he 
wove  some  of  them  into  a  supposed 
speech  which  was  sometimes  called 
"  The  Address  of  Father  Abraham," 
and  sometimes  "  The  Way  to 

Wealth."  yhe  class  of  New  Englanders  from  which  Franklin 
was  descended  had  always  shown  a  fondness  for  proverbs 
and  neat  sayings,  fostered,  perhaps,  by  their  habit  of  quoting 
Bible  phrases;  and  Franklin  had  a  remarkable  genius  for 
making  new  proverbs  and  putting  old  ones  into  lasting  form.1 

1  Among  the  many  familiar  sayings  of  Poor  Richard  are : 
"God  helps  those  that  help  themselves." 
"One  to-day  is  worth  two  to-morrows." 


The  I.un.v  ;igmentof 

I 

"i  of  Duyi,  Tin,  <J  Hill>  Woe, 
tii-.i.  G.j-t.,  .od  okrer>»bl.T>ar     "^ 

Filled  totheLariIO(1col  Forn  De^ 

Km  nu»  «ifhvj;  ftrf 
jvrnt  Plica,  cvto 


i:,  Phi  lo 


PHILADRLPHIA 
d  ind  fold  !>»  B  rtjlHtUH    a  tbc  Ke» 
friaine  Oifia-  on/  ib<  Mi.kn 

Tt«  TliUd  lag  xSlaa.  ~~~-~~ 


Title-page    of    Poor    Rich 
ard's  Almanac. 


40      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


,1  JVENILb 


The  Autobiography,  in  a  literary  way  the  most  important 
of  Franklin's  works,  was  written  so  late  in  life  that  it  belongs, 
strictly  speaking,  to  the  Revolutionary  period;  but  it  tells 
the  story  of  the  author's  life  only  to  1757.  This  delightful 
narrative,  which  every  American  should  surely  read,  owes 
its  charm  in  part  to  the  subject  matter,  and  in  part  to  the 
wonderful  simplicity  and  frankness  with  which  it  is  written. 

^ew  ^nm§s  are  more  difficult 
than  for  an  author  to  speak 

of  himself  without  appearing 
either    conceited    or    falsely 

™d,ef      F™Wi»«™ded 
both  dangers  by  being  always 

wholly  natural. 

The  "Bagatelles,"  the 
least  important  of  the  three 
works  mentioned,  are  short 
sketches  written  by  Franklin 


' 


PRINCE     rpARTHIA 


TR 


EDY. 


•  f<- 


PHILADELPHIA, 

printed  by  H  *  ,,  *  v  M,.ltEll. 

Title-page  of  Godfrey  s  Poems. 


THOMAS  GOD  FRET, 


Son*  ACCOUNT  of  .he  ^»o,  and  hi,  *.„, 

in  France.     These  were  great 
favorites    with    our    grand- 

..  ,  , 

fathers,     and    every    school 
reader  once  contained  "The 

n  .     ,      ,,  , 

Story  of  the  Whistle,  and 
several  others.  They  are,  however,  much  more  artificial 
than  the  Autobiography,  and  perhaps  for  this  reason  they 
have  been  less  generally  remembered. 

Franklin  was  greatest  as  a  thinker  when  he  dealt  with  prac 
tical,  commonsense  ideas,  and  with  the  prudential  virtues  of 

"Little  strokes  fell  great  oaks." 
"It  is  hard  for  an  empty  sack  to  stand  upright." 
"Early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise, 
Makes  a  man  healthy,  wealthy,  and  wise." 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  41 

industry,  thrift,  and  economy.  As  a  writer  he  had  the  ability 
to  make  the  presentation  of  such  ideas  charming,  not  by  orna 
mentation  or  play  of  fancy,  but  by  clearness  and  directness  of 
statement. 

Franklin  mentions  in  his  Autobiography  a  number  of  his 
literary  associates  in  Philadelphia,  several  of  them  writers 
of  some  note  in  their  day.  One  of  the  youngest  of  these, 
THOMAS  GODFREY,  is  known  as  the  author  of  the  Prince  of 
Part hia,  the  first  tragedy  written  in  America  (1759).  God 
frey  had  few  advantages  of  education,  and  had  little  experi 
ence  with  the  world  when  he  made  this  ambitious  attempt. 
The  play  is  faulty  in  construction  and  often  bombastic,  but 
it  was  a  creditable,  almost  a  remarkable  performance  for  an 
unschooled  boy  of  twenty-three.  Unfortunately  the  author 
died  before  his  genius  had  time  to  develop.  Several  other 
friends  of  Franklin  were,  like  himself,  interested  in  natural 
science,  and  helped  to  give  Philadelphia  a  position  of  pre 
eminence  as  a  center  of  scientific  investigation. 

GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  THE  COLONIAL  TIME 

Since  the  early  American  writers  are  important  chiefly 
for  their  influence  on  their  successors,  it  may  be  well  to  close 
this  study  of  the  colonial  time  with  a  brief  survey  of  tenden 
cies  and  results. 

The  earliest  settlers  in  the  South  brought  with  them  the 
ideals  of  Elizabethan  England  and  some  knowledge  of  the 
masterpieces  of  Elizabethan  literature;  and  throughout  the 
colonial  period  educated  Southerners  read  the  latest  works 
of  English  authors,  and  took  these  as  the  models  for  any 
writings  of  their  own.  Economic  and  social  conditions  com 
bined,  however,  to  make  interest  in  education  and  in  litera 
ture  slight,  and  to  discourage  writing.  The  influence  of 


42     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Southern  colonial  writings  on  the  important  authors  of  a  later 
period  is  hardly  noticeable. 

In  New  England  the  first  settlers,  restricted  as  they  were  by 
their  religious  views,  brought  with  them  relatively  little  knowl 
edge  of  the  best  that  had  been  produced  in  English  literature, 
and  took  as  their  literary  models  works  of  inferior  merit,  by 
members  of  their  own  party.  Moreover,  during  the  next 
century  and  a  half  New  Englanders  acquired  relatively  little 
familiarity  with  the  writings  of  their  English  contemporaries, 
and  conscientiously  refrained  from  attempting  many  of  the 
forms  of  literature  that  were  being  produced  in  England. 
The  unfortunate  literary  ideals  of  the  fathers  were  thus  per 
petuated,  with  little  change,  by  the  children.  However,  the 
Puritans  were  devoted  to  education  and  were  fond  of  express 
ing  their  ideas;  so  that  in  the  century  and  a  half  of  the 
colonial  time  New  England  produced  a  body  of  writings  rela 
tively  large  in  proportion  to  the  population,  and  remarkably 
clear,  earnest,  and  well-considered. 

One  other  fact  perhaps  should  be  noted.  Although  the  great 
majority  of  the  writings  in  colonial  New  England  were  the 
work  of  the  ministers  and  their  associates,  there  lived  along 
with  these  graduates  of  Cambridge  and  Harvard  a  large 
number  of  shrewd,  hard-headed,  scheming  Yankees  who  were 
less  notable  for  their  devoutness  than  for  their  ability  to  drive 
a  bargain  or  to  overcome  a  practical  difficulty.  These  men 
wrote  little,  or  at  least  published  little,  during  the  colonial 
time,  but  they  were  an  important  element  in  New  England 
intellectual  life,  and  their  influence  counted  for  much  in  later 
generations. 

As  national  events  shaped  themselves,  much  of  later  Ameri 
can  literature  came  in  direct  line  of  succession  from  the  early 
New  England  writings.  The  student  should  be  able  to  trace 
in  the  work  of  many  nineteenth-century  authors  the  charac- 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  43 

teristics  inherited  from  the  Massachusetts  divines  and  from 
their  more  worldly  parishioners. 

The  Middle  colonies  differed  greatly  among  themselves  in 
conditions  of  settlement  and  in  the  characteristics  of  their 
inhabitants.  In  Philadelphia,  the  chief  intellectual  center, 
conditions  were  in  many  ways  more  favorable  to  literary 
work  than  in  either  the  North  or  the  South.  Here  were 
popular  education,  good  printing  facilities,  freedom  to  read 
the  English  classics,  and  to  write  what  one  chose,  and  a 
general  interest  in  practical  matters  and  in  science.  On  the 
other  hand  there  was  less  idealism  and  moral  enthusiasm  than 
in  New  England.  In  making  the  comparison  it  must  be  re 
membered,  however,  that  the  literary  history  of  Philadelphia 
hardly  begins  before  the  second  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  that  the  brief  Colonial  period  runs  more  closely 
into  the  period  that  follows  than  in  the  other  colonies.  The 
later  literary  influence  of  Philadelphia  was  second  only  to 
that  of  New  England,  and  was  on  the  whole  an  influence  for 
good. 

READINGS  AND  TOPICS 

[NOTE.  —  The  list  of  readings  and  topics  here  given  and  those 
which  follow  succeeding  chapters  of  this  book  are  intended  only 
as  hints  and  aids,  and  not  as  a  course  to  be  followed.  They  give 
an  abundance  of  material  and  as  great  a  variety  as  possible  in  order 
that  the  teacher,  or  the  pupil  with  the  approval  of  the  teacher,  may 
make  a  choice.  Besides  readings  on  important  authors,  and  papers 
which  any  member  of  a  class  may  easily  prepare,  they  suggest  a  few 
out-of-the-way  topics  which  may  occasionally  be  used  to  give  variety 
to  the  work,  and  may  be  of  value  to  a  specially  prepared  or  specially 
interested  student.  These  sometimes  refer  to  works  not  generally 
accessible,  but  a  satisfactory  list  of  readings  may  be  selected  from 
a  relatively  few  books.  An  attempt  is  made  to  indicate  as  far  as  pos 
sible  the  relative  value  of  assignments,  but  the  pupil's  chief  safeguard 
against  undesirable  tasks  must  be  the  advice  of  the  teacher.  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  often  the  most  useful  topics  for  local 


needs  will  not  be  found  in  the  list,  though  they  may  sometimes  be 
suggested  by  those  here  given.] 

General  Suggestions.  —  Any  good  school  history  of  the  United 
States  may  be  used  to  freshen  the  student's  knowledge  of  colonial 
history.  An  excellent  presentation  may  be  found  in  Thwaites's 
The  Colonies  1492-1750.  The  history  of  contemporary  English 
literature  should  also  be  kept  in  mind,  and  may  if  necessary  be  re 
viewed  in  any  good  manual.  It  is  particularly  important  to  note 
the  relations  between  English  and  American  authors. 

The  best  general  discussion  of  American  literary  history  for  this 
time  is  found  in  Tyler,  A  History  of  American  Literature  during 
the  Colonial  Time.  For  briefer  treatments,  see  Cairns,  A  History 
of  American  Literature,  Chap.  I;  Trent,  A  History  of  American 
Literature,  pp.  1-130 ;  Wendell,  A  Literary  History  of  America, 
pp.  13-103.  For  the  South,  see  Moses,  The  Literature  of  the  South. 

Selections  from  the  writers  named  in  the  lists  below  will  be  found 
in  Cairns,  Selections  from  Early  American  Writers;  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vols.  I  and  H  (writers 
from  1607  to  1676  in  Vol.  I,  those  from  1676  to  1765  in  Vol.  II) ; 
Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry;  and  from  some  of  the 
poets  in  Bronson,  American  Poems.  Many  brief  illustrative  selec 
tions  are  also  given  in  connection  with  the  criticisms  in  Tyler's 
History  of  American  Literature  during  the  Colonial  Time,  already 
referred  to. 

THE  SOUTH 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  — -  The  student  should  read  brief  selec 
tions  from  Captain  John  Smith  and  from  William  Byrd.  [For 
SMITH,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  3-17  ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  1-18 ;  Trent 
&  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  1-22.  For  BYRD, 
see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  302-309 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  259-272 ;  Trent 
&  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  21-43.]  If  time 
permits  he  may  also  read  from  Strachey,  The  Rurwell  Papers,  and 
The  Sot-Weed  Factor.  The  relation  of  each  of  these  to  contem 
porary  English  writers  should  be  noted.  [For  STRACHEY,  see  Sted 
man  &  Hutchinson,  A  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
24-31 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  19-26.  For  the  Bur- 
well  Papers,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Litera- 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  45 

ture,  Vol.  I,  pp.  450-462 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  181- 
189 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  II,  pp.  156- 
169.  For  the  Sot-Weed  Factor,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library 
of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  272-274 ;  Cairns,  Early  American 
Writers,  pp.  252-258.] 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Oral  Topics.  —  Interesting  studies 
may  be  made  of  the  impressions  produced  on  the  early  settlers 
by  the  Indians.  [For  this  topic  it  may  be  desirable  to  consult 
not  only  the  writings  of  authors  named  in  the  text,  but  also  of  others, 
e.g.,  Alexander  Whitaker,  John  Pory,  and  Colonel  Norwood.  For 
WHITAKER,  see  Tyler,  History  of  American  Literature  during  the 
Colonial  Time,  Vol.  I,  pp.  45-48 ;  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library 
of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  36-40.  For  PORY,  see  Tyler, 
History  of  American  Literature  during  the  Colonial  Time,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  48-51 ;  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  41^13.  For  COLONEL  NORWOOD  (about  whom  little  is 
known),  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  50-90 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  23-33.] 

Those  who  have  access  to  Smith's  complete  works  may  make  a 
study,  perhaps  more  amusing  than  valuable,  of  the  probable  truth 
of  Smith's  well-known  account  of  his  rescue  by  Pocohontas.  [Com 
pare  the  account  of  his  visit  to  Powhatan  in  the  True  Relation 
with  the  story  in  his  letter  to  Queen  Anne  written  in  1816 ;  see  also 
C.  D.  Warner's  Life  of  John  Smith.]  Students  of  "The  Tempest" 
may  first  find  for  themselves  parallelisms  between  Strachey's 
Wrack  and  Redemption  and  the  play ;  then  compare  Tyler, 
History  of  American  Literature  during  the  Colonial  Time,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  41-45,  and  Furness,  Variorum  edition  of  "The  Tempest," 
pp.  313-315.  Other  suggestions  for  papers:  The  character  of 
Smith  as  seen  in  his  writings ;  The  character  of  Byrd  as  seen  in 
his  writings;  Traces  of  humor  in  Southern  colonial  writings.  For 
suggested  comparisons  between  Southern  and  New  England  colonial 
writings  see  below. 

NEW  ENGLAND 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  In  his  study  of  the  first  Colonial 
period  the  student  should  read  selections  from  at  least  one  of  the 
historians  (Bradford,  Winthrop),  from  at  least  one  of  the  ministers 
(Cotton,  Hooker,  Shepard),  from  The  Bay  Psalm  Book,  Anne 


46      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Bradstreet,  and  Michael  Wigglesworth.  [For  BRADFORD,  see  Sted- 
man  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  93- 
130;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  27^3;  Trent  &  Wells, 
Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  34—69.  For  WINTHROP,  see 
Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  291-309 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  44-59 ;  Trent 
&  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  90-1 19.  For  COTTON, 
see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  253-272 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  82-93 ;  Trent 
&  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  'Poetry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  156-181.  For 
HOOKER,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Litera 
ture,  Vol.  I,  pp.  189-202 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  214-229.  For  SHEPARD,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson, 
Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  216-231 ;  Cairns,  Early 
American  Writers,  pp.  125-133;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose 
and  Poetry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  230-249.  For  Bay  Psalm  Book,  see  Stedman 
&  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  211-216; 
Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  73-81 ;  Bronson,  American 
Poems,  -pp.  2-3 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  120-126.  For  ANNE  BRADSTREET,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson, 
Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  311-315;  Cairns,  Early 
American  Writers,  pp.  146-164 ;  Bronson,  American  Poems,  pp. 
4—19 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  271- 
287.  For  WIGGLESWORTH,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  3-19 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  165-177 ;  Bronson, 
American  Poems,  pp.  19-28 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and 
Poetry,  Vol.  II,  pp.  47-60.]  Those  who  have  time  should  read 
from  Thomas  Morton,  Ward,  and  Folger,  and  will  probably  find 
Morton  and  Ward  more  entertaining,  though  less  significant,  than 
the  writers  previously  mentioned.  [For  MORTON,  see  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  147-156; 
Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  60-72 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial 
Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  70-79.  For  WARD,  see  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  276-285 ; 
Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  112-124;  Trent  &  Wells, 
Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  250-270.  For  FOLGER,  see 
Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  479-485 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  178-180 ;  Trent 
&  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  II,  pp.  111-114.] 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  47 

In  his  study  of  the  second  Colonial  period  the  student  should  if 
possible  read  selections  from  one  of  the  tales  of  Indian  captivity 
(Williams's,  Mrs.  Rowlandson's),  from  Sewall's  Diary,  and  from 
writings  of  Increase  Mather,  Cotton  Mather,  and  Jonathan  Ed 
wards.  [For  JOHN  WILLIAMS,  see  Tyler,  History  of  American 
Literature  during  the  Colonial  Time,  Vol.  II,  pp.  139-140 ;  Stedman 
&  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  241-248. 
For  MRS.  ROWLANDSON,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of 
American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  52-62 ;  Cairns,  Early  American 
Writers,  pp.  190-198;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  193-204.  For  SEWALL,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson, 
Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  188—200;  Cairns,  Early 
American  Writers,  pp.  238-251.  For  INCREASE  MATHER,  see  Sted 
man  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  75- 
106;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  199-216;  Trent  &  Wells, 
Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  II,  pp.  215-230.  For  COTTON 
MATHER,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Litera 
ture,  Vol.  II,  pp.  114-166;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  217- 
237 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  II,  pp.  231-285. 
For  EDWARDS,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American 
Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  373-411;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers, 
pp.  277-294 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  HI, 
pp.  143-189.] 

Papers  and  Topics.  —  A  comparison  may  be  made  between  the 
character  of  Bradford  or  Winthrop  and  that  of  Thomas  Morton 
as  seen  in  their  writings.  A  study  of  popular  superstition  and  be 
lief  as  seen  in  the  writings  of  Bradford,  Winthrop,  and  others,  will 
be  valuable  if  approached  in  the  proper  spirit,  but  there  is  danger 
of  being  too  flippant  or  too  patronizing. 

It  would  seem  that  every  American  of  New  England  ancestry 
should  read  at  least  one  complete  sermon  of  the  sort  that  his  grand 
fathers  heard,  and  those  who  do  so  may  be  tempted  to  present  a 
topic  on  the  New  England  sermon.  [For  side  lights,  see  Tyler.  A 
History  of  American  Literature  during  the  Colonial  Time,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  186-193;  Earle,  The  Sabbath  in  Puritan  New  England;  Child, 
The  Colonial  Parson  of  New  England,  etc.  Sermons  of  the  pre- 
Revolutionary  time  may  be  unearthed  in  many  public  and  private 
libraries.]  Other  possible  topics  arc  :  A  study  of  the  Simple  Cobler, 
Study  of  the  Day  of  Doom,  Early  New  England  epitaphs  and  elegies. 


48      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

[See  Tyler,  A  History  of  American  Literature  during  the  Colonial 
Time,  Vol.  I,  pp.  266-271,  Vol.  II,  pp.  9-11,  38-43] ;  A  comparison 
between  early  historical  writers  in  Virginia  and  Massachusetts, 
e.g.,  Smith  and  Bradford  ;.  The  New  England  Primer  (if  a  reprint 
is  available)  compared  with  modern  textbooks. 

For  the  second  period  many  students  will  find  Sewall's  Diary  the 
most  interesting  reading,  and  on  selections  from  this  may  be  based 
either  an  estimate  of  the  author's  character,  or  notes  on  New  Eng 
land  life  and  customs.  A  study  of  witchcraft  as  seen  in  the  writings 
of  the  Mathers  (Essay  for  the  Recording  of  Illustrious  Providences, 
Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World)  or  of  a  New  England  Revival  as 
seen  in  Edwards's  Narrative  of  Surprising  Conversions  is  interesting, 
but  there  is  danger  of  thinking  these  matters  more  important  than 
they  are.  Elements  of  interest  in  the  narratives  of  Indian  cap 
tivities  would  be  an  excellent  topic  for  those  who  have  access  to  at 
least  one  narrative  complete,  but  should  hardly  be  attempted  from 
brief  selections  alone.  Another  possible  topic  is :  A  comparison 
of  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather. 

THE   MIDDLE   COLONIES 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  The  student  should  if  possible  read 
Franklin's  Autobiography  complete,  and  should  surely  read  selec 
tions  from  this  work  and  from  "  Poor  Richard."  [See  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  3-49 ; 
Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  314-334;  Trent  &  Wells, 
Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  190-236.]  Selections  from 
Godfrey's  Prince  of  Parthia  may  be  read  by  those  specially  in 
terested  in  the  drama.  [See  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of 
American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  492-500;  Cairns,  Early  American 
Writers,  pp.  295-304 ;  Trent  &  Wells,  Colonial  Prose  and  Poetry, 
Vol.  Ill,  pp.  281-283.]  Students  of  American  History  may  be 
interested  in  some  of  Franklin's  political  writings,  and  those  of 
scientific  tastes  may  turn  to  his  accounts  of  electrical  experiments. 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  Topics  on  this  period  will 
naturally  deal  with  the  great  central  figure,  Franklin,  and  their 
character  may  depend  on  the  student's  interests  as  hinted  in  the 
preceding  section.  An  attempt  may  be  made  to  distinguish  from 
the  Autobiography  the  elements  in  Franklin's  character  that  he 
derived  from  New  England  and  those  that  he  derived  from  his 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  49 

experiences  in  the  larger  world.  More  specific  topics,  such  as 
Franklin's  ideas  of  duty,  Franklin's  methods  of  dealing  with  men, 
Franklin's  varied  activities,  A  character  sketch  of  "  Poor  Richard," 
What  Franklin's  Proverbs  really  teach,  Why  we  are  interested  in 
the  Autobiography,  will  readily  suggest  themselves.  Those  who 
are  fresh  from  the  study  of  Shakespeare's  plays  may  trace  the 
imitation  of  the  Elizabethan  manner  in  Godfrey's  Prince  of  Parthia. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD 

1765-1800 

General  Conditions.  —  The  second  period  in  the  literary 
history  of  America  extends  from  the  beginning  of  the  agitation 
which  resulted  in  the  independence  of  the  colonies  until  a  time 
when  the  national  government  was  firmly  established.  In 
order  to  understand  the  development  of  American  literature 
during  these  troubled  years  it  is  necessary  to  remember  the 
many  and  rapid  changes  in  the  interests  and  the  thoughts  of 
the  people. 

From  the  passage  of  the  stamp  act  (1765)  until  after  the 
inauguration  of  Washington  (1789)  all  thinking  Americans 
were  intensely  interested  in  politics  —  so  intensely  interested 
that  most  of  \vhat  they  read  and  wrote  dealt,  directly  or  in 
directly,  with  political  questions.  So  closely  did  writing 
follow  public  affairs  that  each  change  of  political  situation 
might  almost  be  said  to  mark  a  new  literary  period. 

From  the  stamp  act  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  a  time  of  agitation  over  the  rights  of  the  colonies  and  the 
duty  of  men  towTard  government.  The  writings  most  typical 
of  this  period  were  the  argumentative  orations,  pamphlets, 
newspaper  articles,  and  state  papers  which  discussed  the 
many  questions  that  were  constantly  arising. 

During  the  war  men  felt  that  the  time  for  argument  had 
gone  by.  Though  there  were  discussions  on  various  matters, 

50 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  51 

the  most  representative  writings  were  those  which  expressed 
the  loyalty  and  enthusiasm  of  the  author,  and  strove  to  en 
courage  others. 

From  the  treaty  of  peace  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu 
tion  men  thought  of  what  should  be  done  with  their  newly 
won  independence,  and  what  the  form  of  the  new  govern 
ment  should  be.  Argumentative  writings  were  again  promi 
nent,  and  there  were  also  many  patriotic  rejoicings  and  some 
ambitious  attempts  at  an  American  literature. 

^Yhen  the  Constitution  was  adopted,  and  Washington,  the 
national  hero,  was  made  president,  there  followed  a  time  of 
great  national  self-satisfaction  and  glorification,  broken  of 
course  by  some  sectional  and  partisan  bickerings. 

Each  of  these  four  brief  periods  was  in  a  way  distinct  from 
the  others.  They  were,  however,  bound  together  by  the  fact 
that  the  Revolution  was  chiefly  a  young  men's  movement 
so  that  many  of  the  men  who  wrote  and  spoke  in  1765  con 
tinued  active  throughout  the  rest  of  the  century,  and  even 
longer. 

Although  the  colonies  united  for  political  action,  and  later 
merged  into  one  nation,  sectional  differences  continued  strong, 
and  the  most  convenient  grouping  of  authors  is  still  the 
geographical  one.  In  following  this  chapter  the  student 
should  particularly  notice  to  which  of  the  subperiods  each 
work  belongs. 

NEW  ENGLAND 

Boston  Orators  and  Pamphleteers.  —  New  England  con 
tinued,  as  in  the  colonial  time,  to  be  prolific  in  published 
writings,  but  interest  was  now  changed  from  theology  and 
religion  to  theories  of  government,  and  colonial  rights.  Bos 
ton  was  conspicuous  in  determined  opposition  to  the  English 
measures  for  taxation,  and  the  names  of  Lexington,  Concord, 


52     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


and  Bunker  Hill  remind  us  that  it  was  in  the  vicinity  of 
Boston  that  the  first  open  hostilities  appeared.  The  city, 
as  will  be  seen  later,  lost  something  of  the  preeminence  which 
it  had  held  in  general  literature,  but  in  political  writings  it 

took  the  lead.  Many  pa 
triot  writers  and  speakers, 
like  JAMES  OTIS,  SAMUEL 
ADAMS,  and  JOHN  ADAMS, 
have  been  remembered  as 
leaders  in  the  cause  of  lib 
erty,  and  their  names  are 
still  generally  known.  Fame 
has  been  less  kind  to  those 
who  took  the  unpopular  Tory 
side,  but  the  average  of  the 
Tory  writers  was  as  high  as 
that  of  the  patriots,  perhaps 
even  higher  in  culture  and 
literary  training.  It  is  not 
necessary  here  to  discuss  in 
detail  the  numerous  speeches, 
pamphlets,  and  newspaper 
articles  of  these  men,  but 
their  work  is  important  be 
cause  it  constituted  a  great 
element  in  the  reading  of  the 

people  for  a  number  of  years;  because  it  had  a  dignity  and 
a  soundness  of  intellectual  appeal  that  political  controversy 
often  lacks;  and  because  it  set  fashions  of  public  writing 
and  speaking  that  were  to  be  followed  in  America  for  two 
or  three  generations.  This  remark  applies  with  equal  force, 
it  may  be  noted,  to  the  best  political  literature  produced  in 
other  sections  of  the  country. 


Title-page  of  a  patriotic  almanac  of 
1770  with  portrait  of  James  Otis. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  53 

Miscellaneous  New  England  Writings.  —  Political  feeling 
in  Boston  was  so  intense,  and  the  city  suffered  so  severely 
during  the  early  years  of  the  Revolution,  that  there  was  little 
energy  for  the  writing  of  anything  that  had  not  a  political 
hearing.  Possibly  it  \vas  because  men  were  so  much  occu 
pied  with  public  affairs  that  several  of  the  best  remembered 
Boston  writers  of  the  time  were  women. 

MRS.  MERCY  OTIS  WARREN,  sister  of  James  Otis,  was  as 
ardent  a  patriot  as  her  brother,  and  just  before  the  Revolu 
tion  wrote  the  "  Adulator  "  and  the  "  Group,"  two  satirical 
dramatic  poems  in  which  the  characters  represent  w'ell- 
known  patriots  and  Tories.  Later  she  wrote  two  tragedies 
which  are  intended  to  teach  general  political  lessons,  and  a 
history  of  the  Revolution,  full  .of  her  own  reminiscences  and 
opinions.  Her  letters  also  give  interesting  glimpses  of  the 
period,  and  show  the  formal,  artificial  manner  of  correspond 
ence  then  in  vogue.1 

The  works  of  MRS.  SUSANNA  HASWELL  ROWSON  are  of 
little  real  importance,  but  may  serve  as  examples  of  a  great 
quantity  of  moral  and  sentimental  writing  which  the  taste 
of  the  time  seemed  to  demand.  Mrs.  Rowson  was  born  and 
spent  her  early  years  in  Boston,  but  was  in  England  from  the 
outbreak  of  the  Revolution  until  1793.  She  then  returned 
to  America,  went  on  the  stage,  and  later  conducted  a  fashion 
able  school  for  Boston  girls.  Her  tearfully  sentimental  ro 
mance,  Charlotte  Temple,  which  is  still  to  be  read  in  various 

1  Thus,  she  wrote  to  her  son,  who  was  attending  college  :  "Happy 
beyond  expression  will  you  be,  my  son,  if  amidst  the  laudable  pros 
perity  of  youth  and  its  innocent  amusements :  you  ever  keep  that 
important  period  in  view  which  must  wind  up  this  fleeting  existence, 
and  land  us  on  that  boundless  shore  where  the  profligate  can  no 
longer  soothe  himself  in  the  silken  dream  of  pleasure,  or  the  infidel 
entertain  any  further  doubts  of  the  immortality  of  his  deathless 
soul." 


54      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


paper-covered  editions,  was  written  in  England.  After  her 
return  to  America  she  published  essays,  poems,  and  other 
tales,  all  with  an  old-fashioned  moral  and  sentimental  tone. 
The  acceptance  in  New  England  of  even  this  moralizing 
fiction  shows  an  advance  in  liberality  over  the  colonial  time. 
A  still  greater  advance  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Warren 
adopted  the  dramatic  form  for  her  satires,  and  that  twenty 

years  later  Boston  mothers 
would  intrust  their 
daughters  to  a  preceptress 
who  had  been  on  the  stage. 
Still,  stage  plays  were  not 
legally  allowed  in  Boston 
before  1793; *  and  when 
ROBERT  TREAT  PAINE, 
Jr.,2  a  Boston  poet  of  some 
ability  but  of  dissipated 
habits,  came  to  a  bad  end, 
many  persons  attributed 
his  moral  failure  to  the 
fact  that  he  married  an 
actress  and  wrote  a  the 
atrical  prologue  or  two. 
Susanna  Rowson.  Paine's  best  poems  were  a 

1  In  most  American  cities  where  the  theater  was  forbidden  by  law 
the  authorities  connived  at  the  production  of  plays  before  the  pro 
hibition  was  formally  removed.     Some  of  the  subterfuges  resorted 
to  were  amusing.     For  example,   "Othello"   has  been  performed 
under  the  heading,  as  advertised  on  the  playbills,  "Moral  lectures 
on  the  subject  of  jealousy." 

There  were  attempts  at  play-writing  in  various  New  England 
colonies  before  1800.  Some  of  these  are  very  interesting  to  the 
student  of  the  theater  in  America,  but  have  hardly  enough  literary 
merit  to  be  considered  here. 

2  R.  T.  Paine,  Jr.,  was  originally  named  Thomas,  and  was  so 


THE  REVOL UTIONAR  Y  PERIOD  55 

bombastic  patriotic  song,  "  Adams  and  Liberty,"  and  a 
moralizing  poem  in  the  heroic  couplet,  '  The  Ruling 
Passion." 

The  Hartford  Wits.  —  While  Boston  was  making  a  rather 
unimportant  showing  except  in  purely  political  writings, 
more  ambitious  work  was  being  undertaken  a  little  to  the 
southward.  The  change  of  literary  leadership  from  Massa 
chusetts  to  Connecticut  was  due  partly  to  the  hardships 
which  Boston  suffered  as  a  result  of  the  war,  and  partly  to 
religious  and  political  conditions  too  complicated  to  be  traced 
here.  Connecticut  was  prosperous  commercially,  and  both 
the  community  and  Yale  College  were  conservative  in  politics 
and  religion.  The  Connecticut  writers  were  accordingly 
mostly  Federalists l  and  orthodox  Congregationalists.  A 
group  of  these  writers,  known  by  their  contemporaries  as 
the  "  Hartford  Wits,"  2  included  JOHN  TRUMBULL,  TIMOTHY 
DWIGHT,  JOEL  BARLOW,  and  several  men  of  lesser  importance. 

It  was  said  in  the  preceding  chapter  that  about  the  close 
of  the  Colonial  period  young  men  here  and  there  came  to 
recognize  the  charm  of  the  eighteenth-century  English  prose 
and  verse,  and  to  attempt  imitations.  The  older  of  the 
Hartford  Wits  were  such  young  men ;  and  if  political  troubles 
had  not  arisen,  they  might  have  continued  to  write  light  and 
witty  copies  of  Addisonand  Pope.  In  1769-1770  JOHN  TRUM 
BULL,  then  a  graduate  student  at  Yale,  published  in  a  news- 
known  when  his  earlier  poems  were  published.  When  the  irreverence 
of  the  Age  of  Reason  (see  p.  64)  made  the  more  famous  Thomas 
Paine  unpopular,  the  poet  petitioned  the  authorities  to  take  the 
name  of  his  father,  the  well-known  patriot.  Thereafter  it  was  a 
favorite  joke  of  his  to  say  that  he  now  had  a  "Christian"  name. 

1  The  Federalists  were  the  conservative  party,  and  favored  a 
strong   central   government,   and   laws   that   would    preserve   and 
strengthen  property  rights. 

2  "Wits"  was  used  in  the  old  sense  of  men  who  think  and  express 
their  thoughts,  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  idea  of  humor. 


56      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

paper  two  series  of  essays  imitative  of  the  Spectator.  A  little 
later,  while  tutor  at  Yale,  he  wrote  The  Progress  of  Dulness, 
a  poem  in  Hudibrastic  measure  satirizing  higher  education 


An  early  illustration  for  McFingal;  preparations  for  the 
tarring  and  feathering. 

as  it  was  managed  in  New  England.  He  then  read  law  in  the 
office  of  John  Adams  at  Boston,  and  here  naturally  trans 
ferred  his  interest  from  social  foibles  and  systems  of  education 
to  political  questions.  After  two  or  three  lesser  poems  on 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  57 

political  subjects,  he  published  in  January,  1776,  the  first  part 
of  McFiugal,  his  most  famous  work.  The  second  part  of  the 
poem  was  not  added  until  1782.  McFingal  is  a  satire  in 
Hudibrastic  verse,  and  tells  of  the  adventures  and  misad 
ventures  of  a  Scotch  loyalist.1 

Trumbull's  feelings  were  so  intense  that,  though  he  adopted 
a  verse  form  which  is  usually  associated  with  a  light  and  hu 
morous  manner,  his  work  is  sometimes  heavy.  But  other 
Americans  felt  as  intensely  as  he,  and  enjoyed  his  downright 
attacks  on  the  Tory  party.  Everybody  knew  and  quoted 
the  first  part  of  McFingal  during  the  Revolution,  and  for  a 
generation  afterward  the  poem  was  looked  on  as  a  classic. 
A  later  time  has  remembered  only  the  name  and  one  or  two 
well-worded  couplets.2 

TIMOTHY  DWIGHT  was  student  and  later  tutor  at  Yale 
at  the  same  time  with  Trumbull,  and  contributed  some  papers 
to  his  friend's  series  of  Addisonian  essays  already  mentioned. 
Later  he  was  chaplain  in  the  army,  and  during  his  service 
wrote  a  patriotic  song  beginning, 

Columbia,  Columbia,  to  glory  rise, 
which   became   very   popular.     In    1785   he   published   the 

1  The  first  part  of  the  poem  tells  of  an  exciting  town  meeting 
at  which  the  chief  speakers  \\crc  McFingal  and  a  patriot,  Honorius, 
who  is  sometimes  said  to  be  modeled  after  John  Adams.     The  second 
part,  which  was  written  after  people  were  in  a  less  argumentative 
mood,  tells  in  humorous  fashion  of  the  tarring  and  feathering  of 
McFingal  by  a  patriot  mob,  and  of   a  secret  meeting  in  his  cellar 
at  which  he  confesses  his  errors  and  predicts  to  his  followers  the 
success  of  the  Americans. 

2  Probably  the  two  best  known  are : 

"But  optics  sharp  it  needs  I  ween, 

To  see  what  is  not  to  be  seen." 
and 

"X<>  man  e'er  felt  the  halter  draw, 
With  good  opinion  of  the  law." 


58      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Conquest  of  Canaan,  an  epic  poem  in  eleven  books;  and  in 
1794,  Greenfield  Hill,  a  narrative  and  pastoral  poem  in  seven 
parts.  Later  he  became  President  of  Yale  and  wrote  some 
sedate  works  in  prose,  and  a  little  verse  satire.  Dwight  was 
an  ardent  patriot,  but  unlike  Trumbull  he  did  not  write  much 
on  political  events  themselves.  His  most  significant  works 
are  the  Conquest  of  Canaan  and  Greenfield  Hill.  The  former, 
we  are  told,  was  a  juvenile  performance,  written  between 
1771  and  1774;  but  some  passages  wThich  refer  to  the  Revolu 
tion  were  certainly  added  later,  and  very  likely  the  whole 
was  revised  before  it  was  first  published  in  1785.  It  doubtless 
owed  its  origin  in  1771  to  the  young  poet's  reading  of  Pope, 
but  its  publication,  and  the  composition  of  Greenfield  Hill, 
may  be  taken  as  expressions  of  the  feeling  that  the  new  nation 
must  at  once  produce  a  national  literature.  In  the  preface 
to  the  Conquest  of  Canaan,  Dwight  himself  calls  attention 
to  the  fact  that  his  poem  is  the  first  epic  to  be  pub 
lished  in  the  country.  It  is  significant  that  though  the 
author  was  anxious  for  an  American  literature,  there  is 
nothing  distinctly  national,  or  even  individual,  about  his 
work.  His  epic  is  on  an  old-world  subject,1  and  is  written 
in  the  most  conventional  of  meters,  the  heroic  couplet.  In 
Greenfield  Hill  his  plan,  at  first,  was  to  imitate  in  each  of  the 
seven  parts  a  different  English  poet.  The  attempt  to  achieve 
a  national  literature  by  mere  copying  seems  amusing  to  us 
now,  but  it  was  made  by  more  than  one  American.  Dr. 
Dwight  was  a  man  of  great  -ability  and  earnestness,  and 
occasionally,  as  in  his  familiar  hymn  beginning,  "  I  love  thy 
kingdom,  Lord,"  he  expressed  himself  in  genuine  poetry. 
Ordinarily,  however,  his  verse  was  rather  monotonous  and 
uninspired. 

1  It  is  based  on  the  account  in  the  Book  of  Joshua,  but  the  author 
took  considerable  liberties  with  the  scripture  narrative. 


THE  REVOL  UTIONA  R  Y  PERIOD  59 

JOEL  BARLOW,  who  was  a  little  younger  than  Trumbull 
and  D wight,  had  a  varied  career.  After  his  graduation  from 
Yale  in  1778,  he  studied  divinity  for  a  few  weeks,  was  licensed 
to  preach,  and  secured  an  army  chaplainship.  After  the  war 
he  was  lawyer  and  country  editor,  and  revised  the  transla 
tion  of  the  Psalms  for  the  Congregationalists  of  Connecticut. 
He  went  to  England  as  agent  for  a  land  company,  then  to 
France,  where  he  was  active  in  politics.  Still  later  he  was 
United  States  minister  to  France.  To  some  of  his  contem 
poraries  his  beliefs  and  his  principles  seemed  as  changeable 
as  his  occupations,  and  unlike  the  other  Hartford  Wits  he 
was  suspected  of  being  dangerously  liberal  in  both  politics 
and  religion.  While  chaplain  in  the  army,  Barlow  wrote  the 
Vision  of  Columbus,  which  he  later  expanded  into  the  Co 
in  mbiad.  While  he  was  abroad,  he  wrote  some  prose  and  verse 
on  political  subjects,  and  a  mock-heroic  poem,  Hasty  Pud 
ding.  The  latter  was  inspired  by  his  being  served,  in  an  out- 
of-the-way  French  inn,  with  corn  meal  "  mush,"  a  dish  that 
had  been  familiar  in  his  New  England  boyhood.  It  is  his 
cleverest,  perhaps  his  best,  work.1  More  ambitious  and 
more  typical  of  the  author,  as  most  people  saw  him,  were  the 
Vision  of  Columbus  and  the  Columbiad.  The  latter,  though 
not  published  until  1807,  should  be  considered  here,  since  it 
is  really  an  expansion  of  the  earlier  production.  In  both 
poems  Hesper,  the  genius  of  the  Western  world,  takes  Colum 
bus  from  prison,  where  he  was  confined  in  his  old  age,  and 
shows  him  in  vision  the  continent  that  he  has  discovered,  and 
its  future  history.  Barlow  had  more  talent  than  either  Trum 
bull  or  Dwight,  and  he  sometimes  showed  real  poetic  power. 

1  It  was  the  fashion  of  the  authors  of  epics  and  other  ambitious 
works  to  dedicate  them  to  Washington.  Barlow  had  sufficient 
sense  of  humor  to  dedicate  this  mock-heroic  treatment  of  a  culinary 
subject  to  Mrs.  Washington. 


60      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Unfortunately,  he  was  wholly  without  restraint  or  sense  of 
proportion,  and  the  reader  is  so  often  struck  by  bombastic 
and  ludicrously  over-rhetorical  expressions  that  he  is  likely 
to  overlook  the  bits  that  are  really  good.  Strangely  enough, 
the  Columbiad  is  far  more  bombastic  than  the  juvenile  poem. 

Trumbull,  Dwight,  and  Barlow  collaborated  with  a  number 
of  lesser  Hartford  Wits  in  the  production  of  several  polit 
ical  satires,  all  of  which  supported  the  conservative  or  Fed 
eralist  party.  Probably  the  best  of  these  satires  was  the 
Anarchiad,  which  was  published  in  1786-1787.  This  purports 
to  be  a  translation  of  passages  from  a  prehistoric  epic  found 
in  the  Indian  mounds  of  Ohio,  and  gives  ironical  praise  to 
the  reign  of  Anarchy  which,  the  Federalists  believed,  would 
follow  the  victory  of  the  liberal  or  Democratic  party.  The 
Echo,  a  somewhat  later  satire,  was,  as  the  name  implies,  a 
series  of  burlesque  paraphrases  of  passages  from  speeches, 
public  documents,  etc.,  and  was  often  bitterly  personal. 
Two  facts  should  be  noted  with  regard  to  these  writings: 
first,  they  lacked  the  spontaneous  give  and  take  of  popular 
satire,  but  were  the  elaborately  planned  work  of  men  with 
formal  literary  habits;  second,  they  often  descended,  espe 
cially  toward  the  close  of  the  century,  to  trivial  and  ill-tem 
pered  personalities.  Though  one  might  expect  far  more 
bitterness  of  feeling  in  1774  than  twenty  years  later,  McFingal 
is  much  cleaner  and  better  natured  than  the  Echo.  A  similar 
degeneration  will  be  noticed  in  the  political  satire  of  the 
Middle  states. 

The  Hartford  Wits  were  able  and  earnest  men,  who  did 
much,  in  ways  that  this  history  has  not  time  to  trace,  for 
American  literature  and  the  development  of  literary  taste  in 
America.  Unfortunately,  they  were  imitative  in  their  writ 
ings,  and  still  more  unfortunately  they  chose  as  models  the 
English  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century  whose  own  works 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  61 

were  soon  to  go  out  of  fashion.  It  was  natural  that  these 
rather  weak  disciples  should  experience  the  fate  of  their  mas 
ters,  and  in  even  a  greater  degree.  The  temptation  now  is 
to  ignore  them,  or  to  ridicule  them.  There  is  much  to  ridicule, 
but  it  should  be  remembered  that  in  their  own  day  English 
as  well  as  American  critics  thought  that  there  was  much  to 
praise.  Whatever  their  defects,*  the  Conquest  of  Canaan 
and  the  Columbiad  exerted  a  considerable  influence  on  the 
taste  of  the  next  generation.  When  Bryant,  Longfellow, 
arid  Whittier  were  boys,  Barlow,  Trumbull,  and  Dwight 
were  "  the  greater  American  poets." 

THE  MIDDLE  REGION 

Literary  Centers.  --  The  chief  centers  of  literary  activity 
in  the  middle  region  were  New  York  City  and  Philadelphia. 
Several  writers  belonged  to  New  Jersey,  but  most  of  these 
had  their  literary  associations  with  one  or  the  other  of  the 
cities  just  outside  the  borders  of  that  state. 

New  York.  —  The  greatest  patriot  writer  of  Xew  York 
was  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON,  a  West  Indian  by  birth,  who  in 
1774  was  a  student  at  King's  College,  now  Columbia  Uni 
versity.  In  this  year  the  REVEREND  SAMUEL  SEABURY  l 
wrote  three  able  pamphlets  on  the  loyalist  side,  which  he 
signed  "  A  Westchester  Farmer."  Hamilton,  then  a  boy 
only  seventeen  years  of  age,  wrote  two  pamphlets  which  are 
often  considered  the  best  of  the  many  replies  to  the  "  West- 
Chester  Farmer."  From  this  time  until  his  unfortunate 
death  in  1804  Hamilton  was  active  in  the  service  of  his 
adopted  country,  and  his  writings  on  political  and  economic 
subjects  fill  many  volumes.  To  the  general  reader  the  most 

1  Afterward  Bishop  Seabury  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church. 


62      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


important  of  these  is  the  Federalist.  This  was  a  series  of 
papers  published  in  New  York  in  1787-1788  in  support  of  the 
proposed  Constitution.  The  great  majority  of  the  numbers 
were  written  by  Hamilton,  but  a  few  were  by  JOHN  JAY  and 
JAMES  MADISON.  This  remarkable  series  of  newspaper 
articles  was  written  with  such  simplicity  and  fairness  that  it 
had  the  greatest  influence  on  popular  opinion.  At  the  same 

time  it  presents  an  analysis 
of  the  Constitution  so  logical 
and  profound  that  it  has  be 
come  a  recognized  authority 
on  the  nature  of  our  govern 
ment.  Perhaps  no  other  po 
litical  writing  of  recent  times 
has  combined  so  well  the 
qualities  of  a  campaign  doc 
ument  and  a  truly  states 
manlike  utterance  of  prin 
ciples. 

Though  New  York  was  to 
be  the  chief  literary  center 
of  the  country  during  the 
next  period,  it  produced  lit 
tle  of  importance  in  general 
literature  before  1800.  The 

city  was  fairly  liberal  in  regard  to  theatrical  representations, 
and  attracted  men  interested  in  the  drama.  WILLIAM  DUNLAP. 
a  versatile  author,  artist,  and  business  man,  managed  a  New 
York  theater,  wrote  several  plays  of  his  own,  and  adapted 
others  from  foreign  playwrights.  His  comedy  "  The 
Father,"  and  his  historical  tragedy  "  Andre  "  are  best  worth 
remembering. 
Pennsylvania.  —  The  writings  of  Franklin,  the  greatest 


Alexander  Hamilton. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD 


63 


f. 


figure  in  Philadelphia  during  the  later  eighteenth  century, 
have  been  discussed  in  the  preceding  chapter.  Franklin 
was  abroad  on  public 
missions  much  of  the 
time  after  1765,  and 
hence  contributed 
less  than  might  have 
been  expected  to  the 
controversial  writ 
ings  of  the  Revolu 
tion.  To  the  student 
of  literature  the  next 
most  important  po 
litical  writer  is 
THOMAS  PAINE. 
Paine  was  born  in 
England  and  came 
to  Philadelphia  in 
1774,  with  letters  of 
introduction  from 
Franklin.  He  at 
once  took  an  inter 
est  in  American 
affairs,  and  early  in 
1776  published  Com 
mon  Sense,  some 
times  said  to  be  the  first  pamphlet  which  openly  advocated 
the  independence  of  the  colonies.  During  the  war  he  wrote 
at  irregular  intervals  the  Crisis,  a  series  of  papers  intended 
to  explain  and  defend  the  acts  of  the  colonial  authorities,  and 
to  encourage  disheartened  patriots.1  Later  he  went  to  Eng- 


,'  IhthePkEss, 

and  fpeedity  will  be  pubUftied; 

FEDERALIST, 

A  Collection  of  Eflays  written  ip  fa 
Vor  of  the  New  Cbnftitutioh. 

By  a  Citizen  of  Nnv-Tork. 

Corr«aed  bjf  the  Author,    with  '  Additions 
'  and  Alteration*. 

//  work  ixiill  bt  printed  en  ajbrt  Paper 
J  Tjpe,  in  »>tt  candfaite  Volume  duo- 
i  and  delivered  to  fubfcriben  at  the 
moderate  frice  oj 'eve  dollar \  A  few  .copies 
'will  be  prtnied  on  fuperfine  royal  •writing  pa 
per,  price  tenJbilUngi, 

No  teoney  required  till  tkRvery. 

.To  render  tbis  <work  More  complete,  vitilt 
added,  'without  any  additional  txpe*ce, 

PHILO-PUBLIUS, 

A&»  "THE 

Articles    bf  the   Convention, 

At  agreed  upon  a!    PbilaJflpbij,     Septem 
ber  \^th,  1787.  , 


An  advertisement  of  the  Federalist. 


1  The  first  number  opens  in  resounding  fashion,  and  the  first 
words,  at  least,  have  become  proverbial :   "These  are  the  times  that 


64     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

land,  and  to  France,  wluTe  he  wrote,  among  other  things,  The 
Rights  of  Man,  a  political  treatise,  and  the  Age  of  Reason,  an 
attack  on  some  accepted  religious  beliefs.  The  Age  of  Reason 
and  his  association  with  French  free-thinkers  made  Paine  very 

THE 

AMERICAN  CRISIS, 

NUMBER  I. 
BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF  COMMON  SENSE. 


T 


HESE  are  the  times  thnt  try  men*s  foots  :  The 
furnmer  foldier  and  the  Cuufitioe  patriot  will;  in  ibis 
crifij  ihnuk  fuxn  thr  fervicc  ot  hi*c0nt,t«y  :  J'ut  lie 
that  Hands  it  nrw'Mtferves  ibc  love  ard  'hanks  of 

The  beginning  of  the  Crisis  as  first  published. 


unpopular,  and  led  many  persons  to  forget  that  at  the  close 
of  the  war  he  was  one  of  the  most  honored  citizens  of  America. 
The  two  works  with  which  we  are  most  concerned  are  Com 
mon  Sense  and  the  Crisis.  These  are  assuredly  among 

try  men's  souls.  The  summer  soldier  and  the  sunshine  patriot 
will,  in  this  crisis,  shrink  from  the  service  of  his  country ;  but  he 
that  stands  it  now  deserves  the  love  and  thanks  of  man  and  woman." 


THE  REVOL  UTIONA  R  Y  PERIOD  65 

the  most  important  political  writings  of  the  Revolutionary 
time.  Paine  was  not  a  very  deep  or  a  very  logical  thinker, 
and  his  literary  style,  which  he  acquired  almost  wholly  after 
he  came  to  Philadelphia,  shows  many  technical  rhetorical 
faults;  but  he  took  the  view  of  the  common  man,  he  was 
enthusiastic,  and  he  knew  how  to  write  plainly,  effectively, 
and  often  with  dignity. 

Among  other  Philadelphia  controversialists  was  JOHN 
DICKINSON,  sometimes  known  as  the  "  Penman  of  the 
Revolution."  He  wrote  many  pamphlets  and  newspaper 
articles,  and  historians  testify  to  his  great  influence,  but  the 
present-day  reader  may  find  his  prose  dull  and  disappointing. 

A  lighter  and  more  versatile  writer  was  FRANCIS  I !<>]>- 
KINSON,  who  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Philadelphia,  though 
he  resided  for  a  time  in  New  Jersey,  and  signed  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  as  a  representative  of  that  colony. 
Hopkinson  was  an  able  lawyer  and  a  judge,  but  he  found 
time  for  many  things  besides  his  profession.  He  was  inter 
ested,  as  a  clever  amateur,  in  the  fine  arts,  and  he  wrote  many 
essays,  and  light  verses,  some  of  \vhich  he  set  to  music.  The 
most  famous  though  not  the  best  of  his  poems  was  his  satiric 
ballad,  "  The  Battle  of  the  Kegs,"  written  during  the  British 
occupation  of  Philadelphia.  His  many  prose  essays  include 
two  political  allegories,  "  A  Pretty  Story  "  and  "  The  New 
Roof."  l  Hopkinson  was  by  no  means  the  greatest  of  the 
Philadelphia  writers,  but  he  is  one  of  the  most  interesting, 

1  "The  Battle  of  the  Kegs"  ridicules  the  alarm  felt  by  the  British 
in  Philadelphia  when  the  patriots  floated  bombs,  made  of  kegs 
filled  with  gunpowder,  down  among  the  shipping  in  the  Delaware. 
"A  Pretty  Story  "  (1774)  tells  of  an  old  farmer  (John  Bull),  his  farm 
(England),  his  sons  (the  colonists),  and  the  new  farm  (America). 
In  "The  New  Roof"  the  question  is  whether  to  repair  the  old  roof 
(the  Articles  of  Confederation),  or  to  make  an  entirely  new  roof 
(the  Constitution). 


66      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

and  he  should  be  remembered  as  evidence  that  America  was 
now  producing  gentlemen  who  showed  both  eminence  in  a 
profession  and  wide  general  culture. 


Independence  Hall. 

Between  the  close  of  the  Revolution  and  1800  a  consider 
able  amount  of  political  satire  was  written  in  Philadelphia, 
some  of  it  by  Europeans  who  had  come  to  America.  WIL- 


THE  RE  VOL  UT1ONA  R  Y  PERIOD  67 

LIAM  COBBETT,  an  English  editor  and  pamphleteer  who  under 
the  pen  name  of  "  Peter  Porcupine  "  was  notorious  in  the 
political  controversies  of  two  hemispheres,  lived  in  Phila 
delphia  from  1792  to  1800,  and  wrote  in  support  of  the  Feder 
alist  party.  One  of  his  most  vigorous  opponents  was 
MATHEW  CAREY,  a  political  exile  from  Ireland,  who  came  to 
Philadelphia  in  1784  and  was  a  conspicuous  figure  there  for 
more  than  fifty  years.  Both  Cobbett  and  Carey  were  able 
men,  and  advanced  some  real  arguments  in  support  of  their 
positions,  but  a  great  part  of  their  controversial  writings 
consisted  of  personal  attacks.1  The  degeneration  of  political 
satire,  which  has  already  been  noticed  in  the  later  work  of  the 
Hartford  Wits,  was  even  more  marked  in  the  Middle  states, 
and  gentlemen  of  real  refinement  were  guilty  of  language 
that  would  now  be  heard  only  from  blackguards. 

HUGH  HENRY  BRACKENRIDGE,  a  Pennsylvanian  who  lived 
for  some  time  at  Pittsburg,  in  what  was  then  the  Far  West, 
was  a  more  humorous  and  a  less  bitter  satirist.  His  Modern 
Chivalry,  the  first  part  of  which  was  published  at  Pittsburg, 
in  1796,  tells  in  the  rollicking  style  of  Smollett  and  Fielding 
the  imaginary  adventures  of  a  Captain  Farrago  and  his 
Irish  servant,  and  touches,  more  by  hints  than  by  direct 
preaching,  on  some  of  the  defects  of  a  democratic  society. 
This  work,  the  first  written  west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains 
to  be  mentioned  in  this  history,  shows  the  tendency  toward 
burlesque  and  boisterous  exaggeration  which  has  always 
been  characteristic  of  the  American  frontier. 

1  Carey  calls  Cobbett  "a  blasted,  posted,  loathsome  coward  .  .  . 
a  disgrace  to  the  name  of  soldier,"  and  "the  most  tremendous 
scourge  that  hell  ever  vomited  forth  to  curse  a  people,  by  sowing 
discord  among  them."  Cobbett  was  at  least  equally  violent  in  his 
abuse.  That  this  was,  partly  at  least,  a  matter  of  rhetoric  is  in 
dicated  by  the  fact  that  a  few  years  later  the  men  were  exchanging 
the  most  friendly  letters. 


68      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


At  the  very  close  of  the  century  CHARLES  BROCKDEN 
BROWN,  the  first  American  novelist  worthy  of  the  name, 
produced  a  series  of  remarkable  tales.  Brown  was  born  in 
Philadelphia  and  always  lived  there  except  for  some  extended 
visits  to  New  York.  He  became  somewhat  liberal  in  his 
political  and  religious  views  through  a  study  of  William  God 
win,  the  English  essayist  and  novelist,  and  it  was  Godwin's 

novels  that  he  took  as  models 
for  his  own  prose  fiction.  His 
six  tales,  Wieland,  Ormond, 
Arthur  Mervyn,  Edgar 
Huntley,  Clara  Howard,  and 
Jane  Talbot,  were  written  in 
the  years  1798-1801,  inclu 
sive.  These  contain  many 
elements  of  mystery  and  hor 
ror,  and  deal  with  unusual 
physical  and  psychological 
phenomena.1  Brown  was 
thus  the  first  of  the  Ameri 
can  story-writers  who,  like 
Hawthorne  and  Poe,  dealt 
with  the  mysterious  and  the 
weird.  Though  he  had  lit 
tle  or  no  influence  on  these 

later  masters,  he  is  worthy  to  be  remembered  for  himself. 
That  he  was  not  still  more  successful  is  due  in  part  to  the 
rapidity  with  which  he  wrote  and  in  part  to  an  unfortunate 

1  In  Wielanrl  one  man  meets  death  by  some  unexplained  process 
of  spontaneous  combustion,  and  another  is  led  to  commit  murder 
by  hearing  mysterious  voices.  Edgar  Huntley  is  a  story  of  a  sleep 
walker.  Both  Ormond  and  Arthur  Mervyn  present  graphically  the 
horrors  of  the  yellow  fever  epidemic  in  Philadelphia. 


Charles  Brockden  Brown. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD 


69 


choice  of  subjects  and  of  literary  masters.     Many  of  his  de 
scriptions  are  most  effective. 

New  Jersey  Writers.  —  PHILIP  FRENEAU,  the  most  im 
portant  poet  of  the  Revolutionary  time,  had  some  associa- 


Philip  Freneau. 


tions  with  both  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  but  properly 
belongs  to  New  Jersey.     He  was  graduated  from  Princeton 


70     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

in  1771,  and  during  much  of  his  long  life,  which  extended 
until  1832,  was  alternately  sailor  and  editor.  His  prose 
writings  and  many  picturesque  incidents  in  his  biography 
need  not  detain  us  here.  As  a  poet  he  was  remarkable  for 
the  possession  of  two  different,  indeed  almost  opposite,  tal 
ents  —  one  for  writing  the  most  bitter  invective,  the  other 
for  the  expression  of  delicate  imagination  and  fine  apprecia 
tion  of  nature.  The  first  of  these  characteristics  is  shown  in 
his  political  satires.1  He  began  to  write  these  in  1775,  and 
resumed  them  again  in  1778,  after  a  three  years'  absence  in 
the  West  Indies.  For  some  time  these  were  the  best  known 
work  of  Freneau,  but  of  recent  years  attention  has  turned  to 
his  other  writings,  and  his  worth  as  a  poet  has  come  to  be 
better  recognized.  Some  of  his  earlier  poems,  particularly 
'  The  House  of  Night,"  written  while  he  was  in  the  West 
Indies,  show  a  vivid  imagination,  and,  though  uneven,  great 
power  of  word  painting.  Shorter  poems  on  plants,  animals, 

1  Freneau  at  his  worst  may  be  seen  in  lines  like  these  on  Cobbett : 

"Philadelphians,  we're  sorry  you  suffer  by  fevers, 
Or  suffer  such  scullions  to  be  your  deceivers ; 

Will  Pitt's  noisy  whelp 

With  his  red  foxy  scalp 
Whom  the  kennels  of  London  spew'd  out  in  a  fright, 

Has  sculk'd  over  here 

To  snuffle  and  sneer, 
Like  a  puppy  to  snap  or  a  bull-dog  to  bite." 

It  is  hard  to  believe  this  the  work  of  the  same  man  who  wrote 
genuinely  tender  lines  "To  a  Honey-Bee,"  "To  a  Caty-Did,"  "On 
the  Sleep  of  Plants,"  and  who  could  say  in  "The  Wild  Honey 
suckle  " : 

"By  Nature's  self  in  white  arrayed, 
She  bade  thee  shun  the  vulgar  eye, 
And  planted  here  the  guardian  shade, 
And  sent  soft  waters  murmuring  by ; 
Thus  quietly  thy  summer  goes, 
Thy  days  declining  to  repose." 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  71 

the  beliefs  of  the  Indians,  etc.,  indicate  careful  observation 
and  sympathy  with  nature,  and  a  light  touch  not  to  be  sus 
pected  of  a  man  whose  satires  are  sometimes  almost  ludi 
crous  for  their  bitterness.  In  this  more  imaginative  work 
Freneau  showed  himself  responsive  to  some  of  the  influences 
that  a  little  later  manifested  themselves  in  the  Romantic 
movement  in  English  poetry.  He  had  more  poetic  insight 
than  any  other  American  whom  we  have  thus  far  met,  and 
was  the  most  important  American  poet  before  Bryant. 

JOHN  WOOLMAX,  a  Quaker  who  traveled  and  exhorted 
where  the  Inner  Light  led  him,  in  both  England  and  America, 
was  also  a  native  of  New  Jersey.  Woolman's  Journal  is  a 
delightful  revelation  of  the  thoughts  and  experiences  of  a 
pure,  if  impractical,  idealist.  It  is  the  sort  of  book  that  ap 
peals  to  readers  strongly,  or  not  at  all.  Many  distinguished 
critics  whose  temperaments  have  fitted  them  to  enjoy  it 
have  ranked  it  among  the  greater  works  of  American  litera 
ture.1  The  general  public,  however,  has  been  disposed  to 
pass  it  by  with  little  notice. 

The  Song  Writers.  —  This  is  a  convenient  place  to  mention 
the  songs  and  ballads  produced  during  the  Revolution. 
Since  many  of  these  are  anonymous,  they  cannot  be  assigned 
to  any  section  of  the  country,  but  a  considerable  number  of 
those  whose  authors  are  known  came  from  the  Middle  region. 
As  is  usual  at  a  time  of  great  popular  excitement,  there  were 
many  of  these  lyric  expressions  of  feeling,  some  spontaneous, 
some  deliberately  studied.  The  ballads  proper  commemo 
rated  events  of  political  or  military  significance,  and  were 

1  Charles  Lamb  said,  "Get  the  writings  of  John  Woolman,  the 
Quaker,  by  heart."  Whittier  was  a  great  admirer  of  Woolman  ;  and 
in  a  list  of  "best  books"  compiled  by  President  Eliot  of  Harvard, 
the  Journal  was  included,  though  most  works  of  later  Americans 
were  conspicuously  absent. 


72      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

either  satirical  or  serious.  An  example  of  the  former  is 
Hopkinson's  "  Battle  of  the  Kegs "  already  mentioned. 
The  best  of  the  latter  is  probably  the  anonymous  "  Hale  in 
the  Bush,"  inspired  by  the  death  of  Nathan  Hale.1  '  Yankee 
Doodle  "  is  in  ballad  form,  though  not  suggested  by  a  partic 
ular  event.  This  had  the  peculiar  fate  of  being  composed 
as  a  burlesque  on  the  patriots,  and  of  being  adopted  by  them. 
The  songs  were  of  all  sorts,  but  the  greater  number  of  them 
were  written  to  fit  popular  tunes  then  in  vogue.2  Many 
sets  of  words  favoring  both  patriots  and  Tories  were  adapted 
to  the  English  tune  "  Hearts  of  Oak,"  then  very  popular. 
Among  patriotic  lyrics  of  the  studied  sort  were  the  "  Liberty 
Song,"  by  John  Dickinson,  beginning: 

Come  join  hand  in  hand,  brave  Americans  all, 
And  rouse  your  bold  hearts  at  fair  Liberty's  call, 

and  "  Columbia,"  by  Timothy  Dwight,  already  referred  to. 
The  loyalist  songs  and  ballads  have  been  less  carefully  pre 
served.,  since,  after  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  loyalists  had 
fewer  facilities  for  printing,  and  since  the  authorship  of  loyal 
ist  songs  was  more  likely  to  be  kept  secret.  As  might  be 
expected  from  the  fact  that  many  of  the  loyalists  were  old- 
fashioned,  conservative  gentlemen,  these  are,  on  the  average, 
more  finished  and  less  rollicking  than  the  patriot  effusions. 

1  The  first  stanza  runs  : 

"The  breezes  went  steadily  thro'  the  tall  pines, 

A  saying  '  oh  !    hu-ush  ! '  a  saying  '  oh  !    hu-ush  ! ' 
As  stilly  stole  by  a  bold  legion  of  horse, 
For  Hale  in  the  bush,  for  Hale  in  the  bush." 

2  Many  students  will  recognize  the  same  tendency  in  the  custom, 
common  in  schools    which  develop  great  interest  in  athletics,    of 
arousing  enthusiasm  by  local  songs  —  words  by  some  member  of  the 
school,  sung  to  a  familiar  old  tune,  or  to  some  temporary  favorite 
of  the  vaudeville  stage. 


73 


. 


The  Revolution  produced  no  great  national  lyric.  Indeed, 
the  only  song  of  the  time  now  generally  known  is  the  ironical 
"  Yankee  Doodle." 

THE  SOUTH 

General    Conditions.  —  In    the   conditions  that    affected 
literature  the  South  had  not  changed  much  since  the  days  of 
William   Byrd.     Education  and  familiarity  with  literature 
were  more  general  than  they  had  been  in  the  earlier  colonial 
time,  but  with  the  planta 
tion   system  of  life  there 
were   few  centers  of  cul 
ture,  and  good  usage  still 
discouraged   a  gentleman 
from     making     literature 
more    than    a    casual    di 
version.       In    quality   of 
political     writings,     how 
ever,    the    South,    and    es-  Jefferson's  home  at  Monticello. 
pecially  Virginia,  the   fu 
ture  "  Mother  of  Presidents,"  was  in  no  degree  inferior  to 
other  sections  of  the  country.      That  the  number  of  such 
writings  was  less  than  in  Xew  England  was  due  in  part  to 
the  lack  of  ready  facilities  for  publication. 
'  Political  Writers  and  Speakers.  —  The  most  talented  of 
the  Virginia  statesmen  was  THOMAS  JEFFERSON.     Some  of 
Jefferson's  early  political  writings  brought  him  such  a  repu 
tation  that  he  was  named  by  the  Continental  Congress  as 
chairman  of  the  committee  to  prepare  the  Declaration   of 
Independence,  and  is  chiefly  responsible  for  the  final  form  of 
that  document.     Later  he  wrote,  besides  many  state  papers, 
his  Notes  on   Virginia.     This  work  shows  the  extent  of  his 
information  and  the  breadth  of  his  interests,  which  included 


74      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


natural  science,  methods  of  farming,  and  other  practical 
matters,  and  what  at  a  later  date  would  be  called  political 
economy.  His  many  writings  produced  between  1800  and 
his  death  in  1826  fall  outside  the  limits  of  the  present  chapter. 
While  invaluable  to  the  student  of  history,  they  differ  little 
in  literary  quality  from  his  earlier  works. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  as  it  stands  is  vir 
tually  Jefferson's  work,  exemplifies  two  styles  of  writing, 

both  of  which  were  long 
common  in  American  po 
litical  discussions,  and 
each  of  which  shows 
something  of  the  author's 
habits  of  thought.  The 
more  formal  and  high- 
sounding,  though  some 
what  vague  parts,  such 
as  the  famous  opening 
paragraph,  show  Jeffer 
son  as  a  speculative 
thinker.  The  long  and 
tellingly  phrased  list  of 
charges  against  the  King 

Thomas  Jefferson.  ,  .      .  .        , 

shows  his  interest  in  de 
tails,  and  his  ability  to  present  them  with  power.  The 
length  of  this  catalogue  of  grievances  now  makes  it  some- 
wrhat  wearisome,  but  in  its  day  both  this  and  the  more 
'rhetorical  parts  were  equally  effective.  In  recent  years 
popular  taste  prefers  a  simpler  and  more  direct  form  of 
expression,  but  the  people,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
to  whom  the  Declaration  was  addressed,  deemed  it  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  documents  of  the  world.  All 
patriotic  considerations  aside,  it  is  worthy  of  the  closest 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD 


75 


study,  both  for  itself  and  for  its  influence  on  later  Ameri 
can  prose. 

The  greatest  of  the  Southern  Revolutionary  orators  was 
PATRICK  HENRY.     Though  Henry  had  a  long  and  influential 


Adams 


Sherman 


Jefferson 


The  committee  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 


career,  his  popular  fame  rests  mainly  on  two  orations,  neither 
of  which  is  fully  and  authentically  preserved.  Of  the  first 
of  these,  delivered  before  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses 
at  the  very  beginning  of  the  struggle,  in  1765,  we  have  little 
more  than  one  broken  sentence.1  The  second,  delivered  ten 

1  "Caesar  had  his  Brutus;  Charles  the  First  had  his  Cromwell; 
and  George  the  Third  —  [Here  the  speaker  was  interrupted  by  cries 
of  'Treason']  may  profit  by  their  example." 


76      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


*,«</*x 


>.. 


1  lf»i  M.y  •> 
'  v^^g** 
«JU2  u^ 


«JI  !-»  «,*  **  r<i  i^»i  m»l^r.    ff^~  «* 

•      ^  "•> •<•»  »ia».~a  <-,H~*.  ^—^r • 

.,,..^— ^ UrU    ^^^Sfc^nTJG"I^?g> 


,^>(^<..i 


pnv>>  _   fK*«  <JA»^«^*r  »— ^  y«r"-  -y  V^~ 

i.  <^  /ju^«. « ^  v>,  </•  t«  ^C«-  >^f< ' 

,  injtUu&    *^u  ff^mvm^jl,  ^*3"/  •'  '  /"  '"  *+&*• 
rr^mJ^  ii       »r^.-, 

*     •  • 

.    "7 


,1     u       .^,  A     ^     ^  fcAU-^^ 

. 
f*t£L+**Jl  sl*Sf*'rAr**x-  ^  /  txrffr  c^V*xtc>;  o'y"-*/  «,*  -r^w  M*  n*--t.- 

^-jk***^'    ™*'     ^*fr«f>*-  mU& 

A.         '  A^  r-  fZ 

'f  y   *f*   V>-«ATvt  -MMBBlK   <-^ 


Jefferson's  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD 


77 


years  later  before  the  convention  which  replaced  the  colonial 
assembly,  is  known  from  a  report  which  was  given  by  Wirt, 
one  of  Henry's  biographers.  This  speech,  with  its  famous 
climax,  "  Give  me  Liberty,  or  give  me  Death,"  has  always 
been  regarded  as  an  Ameri 
can  classic.  Other  and  bet 
ter  preserved  speeches  of 
Henry  show  something  of 
the  same  qualities  as  these 
two  orations,  though  in  a 
lesser  degree.  Henry  wras 
a  man  of  courage,  fire,  and 
directness  of  speech,  and 
had  a  command  of  the 
slightly  artificial  forms  of 
address  that  in  his  day, 
more  than  in  ours,  were 
calculated  to  move  people 
on  occasions  of  excitement. 
That  he  was  not,  however, 

a  mere  juggler  with  words  is  proved  by  the  respect  in  which 
lie  was  held  by  his  contemporaries,  and  by  the  fact  that  he 
was  offered  such  important  positions  as  Secretary  of  State, 
and  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States. 


Patrick  Henry. 


GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  TIME 

The  years  between  1765  and  1800  were  a  time  of  literary 
transition  and  aspiration  rather  than  of  great  achievement 
in  the  forms  of  writing  ordinarily  called  "  literary."  Though 
Woolman's  Journal,  the  better  poems  of  Freneau,  and  the 
novels  of  Charles  Brockden  Brown  merit  attention  for  them 
selves,  none  of  them,  except  possibly  the  first  named,  really 


78      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

deserves  a  place  with  the  best  work  of  nineteenth-century 
authors.  The  great  fact  of  the  time  was  the  development 
of  a  national  feeling;  and  this  manifested  itself  spontane 
ously  in  a  remarkable  body  of  political  writings,  and  self 
consciously  in  more  formal  literary  attempts.  It  is  among 
the  political  writings  that  the  real  classics  of  the  time  are  to 
be  found.  The  speeches  of  Patrick  Henry,  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  the  Federalist  —  to  mention  only  a 
few  of  the  most  conspicuous  —  are  really  works  of  literature, 
and  they  were  accepted  models  of  style  until  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  more  formal  literary  work  of 
the  time  —  the  epics,  dramas,  and  essays  —  suffered  from 
a  lack  of  real  earnestness  and  inspiration.  Some  of  it  was 
written  because  the  author  wanted  to  produce  literature, 
not  because  he  had  ideas  that  he  was  impelled  to  express. 
Almost  without  exception  it  was  imitative  of  English  models, 
and  lacked  vitality,  as  imitations  almost  always  do.  It 
was  partly  owing  to  the  example  of  contemporary  English 
authors  that  political  satire  during  the  period  was  often  bitter, 
and  toward  the  close  of  the  century  dirty  and  unpleasantly 
personal. 

The  development  of  a  national  consciousness  could  not 
change  the  intellectual  habits  of  a  people,  and  the  chief 
sections  of  the  country  preserved  much  the  same  character 
istics  as  in  the  colonial  time.  New  England  maintained  the 
lead  in  literature,  but  there  were  now  two  centers,  one  in 
Massachusetts  and  about  Harvard  College,  the  other  in  Con 
necticut  and  about  Yale.  Of  the  two,  Boston  led  in  the 
production  of  political  prose,  Connecticut  in  miscellaneous 
writings.  Both  sections  showed  a  growing  liberality  toward 
the  drama  and  prose  fiction,  but  the  work  done  in  these  forms 
was  of  minor  importance.  The  Hartford  Wits  reflected 
the  conservative  tendencies  of  Connecticut  and  imitated  the 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  79 

more  formal  English  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century.1 
Probably  the  best  work  of  the  Hartford  Wits  is  found  in 
TrumbulPs  early  satires.  Their  later  writings  were  solid, 
dignified,  and  painstaking,  but  unoriginal  and  uninspired. 

Though  the  Middle  region  could  not  show  so  large  a  body 
of  writings  as  New  England,  or  so  closely  related  a  group  of 
authors  as  the  Hartford  Wits,  it  produced  individual  works 
of  higher  rank.  It  is  necessary  only  to  mention  the  political 
writings  of  Hamilton  in  New  York  and  of  Franklin  and 
Paine  in  Philadelphia,  the  Journal  of  Woolman,  the  poems  of 
Freneau,  and  the  novels  of  Brown.  Both  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  were  more  liberal  than  New  England  toward 
the  theater  and  prose  fiction.  The  one  produced  Dunlap, 
who  is  often  known  as  the  Father  of  the  American  drama; 
the  other  Brown,  who  was  the  first  real  American  novelist. 

The  South  continued  unimportant  in  all  forms  of  writing 
except  the  political,  but  in  this  it  took,  as  usual,  high  rank. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  most  important  legacies  of  this 
period  to  the  next  were  a  thoroughly  aroused  interest  in  most 
forms  of  literature,  and  many  excellent  examples  of  political 
prose.  For  reasons  which  have  been  indicated,  most  of  the 
verse,  the  hesitant  beginnings  of  the  drama,  and  even  the 
novels  of  Brown  were  incentives  to  better  and  different  work 
in  the  same  line,  not  models  for  imitation.  On  the  other 
hand  the  better  political  writings  of  the  founders  of  the 
nation  established  a  manner  that  was  long  worthy  to  be 
followed. 

1  It  should  be  noted  that,  owing  to  the  earlier  distrust  of  secular 
literature,  New  Englanders  came  to  the  imitation  of  Butler  and 
Addison  a  generation  or  two  later  than  did  Ebenezer  Cook  and 
William  Byrd. 


80      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


READINGS  AND  TOPICS 

General  Suggestions.  —  The  writings  of  this  period  are  so  closely 
connected  with  political  events  that  it  is  essential  that  the  student 
keep  in  mind  the  course  of  American  history.  The  chapters  on 
the  Revolution  in  any  good  school  history  will  probably  serve  to 
refresh  his  memory  sufficiently,  or  he  may  consult  a  special  work, 
such  as  Fiske,  The  American  Revolution.  The  best  extended  dis 
cussion  of  the  period  of  the  war,  combining  both  history  and  literary 
criticism,  is  found  in  Tyler,  The  Literary  History  of  the  American 
Revolution.  For  briefer  discussions  of  the  literature  of  the  period, 
see  Cairns,  History  of  American  Literature,  Chapter  II ;  Trent, 
History  of  American  Literature,  pp.  131-186;  Wendell,  Literary 
History  of  America,  pp.  59-136. 

Selections  from  all  the  writers  from  whom  readings  are  advised 
are  to  be  found  in  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American 
Literature,  Vols.  Ill  &  IV,  and  from  the  more  important  in  Cairns, 
Selections  from  Early  American  Writers.  Extracts  from  the  more 
important  writers  of  verse  are  given  in  Bronson,  American  Poems; 
and  the  discussions  in  Tyler's  Literary  History  of  the  American 
Revolution  are  often  illustrated  by  extended  quotations. 

In  his  readings  for  this  period,  particularly  for  the  prose,  the 
student  should  attempt  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  general  characteristics, 
rather  than  to  study  intensively  the  work  of  individual  authors. 
For  this  reason  the  choice  of  selections  is  somewhat  less  definitely 
indicated  than  in  the  suggestions  that  follow  other  chapters. 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  It  is  hardly  necessary  that  the  general 
student  read  selections  from  the  political  writers  of  New  England, 
provided  he  gives  sufficient  attention  to  work  of  this  sort  from 
other  sections.  Those  whose  study  of  American  history  has  given 
them  especial  interest  in  the  subject  may,  however,  if  the  material 
is  available,  read  selections  from  James  Otis,  Samuel  Adams,  John 
Adams,  and  others.  [See  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of 
American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  113-116  (OTIS),  91-98  (S.  ADAMS), 
and  186-205  (J.  ADAMS).  Better  than  brief  selections  would  be 
one  complete  pamphlet,  or  a  discussion,  e.g.,  that  between  Novan- 
gelus  (John  Adams)  and  Massachusettensis  (Daniel  Leonard).] 

The  miscellaneous  Boston  writers  are  relatively  unimportant. 
If  one  is  desired  as  a  representative  of  the  group,  perhaps  Mercy 


THE  EEVOL  UTIONA  R  Y  PERIOD  81 

Warren  best  repays  study.  Those  who  wish  may  glance  at  the 
sentimental  tales  of  Mrs.  Rowson  as  literary  curiosities.  [For 
MRS.  WARREN  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  Ameri 
can  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  121-126;  Cairns,  Early  American 
Writers,  pp.  384—394.  For  MRS.  ROWSON,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchin 
son,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  176-179.] 

The  Hartford  Wits  require  more  attention.  The  student  should 
read  selections  from  Trumbull's  McFingal,  and  if  possible  from  the 
Progress  of  Dulness,  from  Dwight's  Conquest  of  Canaan  and  Green 
field  Hill,  from  Barlow's  Vision  of  Columbus  or  Columbiad,  and  if 
possible  from  Hasty  Pudding.  [For  TRUMBULL,  see  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  403-413 ; 
Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  395-408 ;  Bronson,  American 
Poems,  pp.  87-105.  For  DWIGHT,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson, 
Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  463-483 ;  Cairns,  Early 
American  Writers,  pp.  409-420;  Bronson,  American  Poems,  pp. 
108-115;  Stedman,  American  Anthology,  pp.  9-10.  For  BARLOW, 
see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol. 
IV,  pp.  46-57 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  421-430 ; 
Bronson,  American  Poems,  pp.  116-133.  Selections  from  the 
Anarchiad  and  the  Echo  may  be  found  in  Stedman  &  Hutchinson, 
Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  422^29.] 

Though  the  Federalist  is  somewhat  difficult,  the  student  should 
read  enough  to  observe  the  author's  method.  [See  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  119-127; 
Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  364—369.]  Students  interested 
in  the  drama  may  read  selections  from  Dunlap.  [See  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  208-221. 
Complete  plays  are  difficult  of  access,  but  copies  of  "  The  Father" 
and  "  Andre"  may  be  found  in  some  libraries.] 

The  student  should  read  selections  from  Paine's  Common  Sense 
and  The  Crisis,  as  examples  of  the  political  literature.  [See  Sted 
man  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp. 
219-236;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  343-352.]  Well 
worth  while  for  those  who  have  time  are  one  of  Hopkinson's  political 
satires,  and  a  few  of  his  poems,  and  selections  from  Brackenridge's 
Modern  Chivalry.  The  latter  should  be  associated  with  the  develop 
ment  of  literature  in  the  West.  [For  HOPKINSON,  see  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  236-251; 


82     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  372-383.  For  BRACKENRIDGE, 
see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol. 
Ill,  pp.  389-396;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  466-474.] 
Brown's  novels  should  not  be  read  at  the  expense  of  more  important 
writings,  but  they  are  valuable  as  showing  the  beginnings  of  Ameri 
can  fiction.  If  a  complete  novel  is  read,  the  best  choice  for  a 
beginner  is  probably  Wieland.  [Selections  from  BROWN,  unsatis 
factory  as  selections  from  novels  always  are,  may  be  found  in  Sted 
man  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  IV,  pp. 
265-292 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  475-493.] 

Freneau,  as  the  most  important  poet  of  the  time,  should  receive 
considerable  attention ;  and  every  student  should  read  enough  from 
Woolman's  Journal  to  determine  whether  or  not  it  appeals  to 
him.  [For  FRENEAU,  see  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  Ameri 
can  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  445-457 ;  Cairns,  Early  American 
Writers,  pp.  431^48;  Bronson,  American  Poems,  pp.  133-155; 
Stedman,  American  Anthology,  pp.  3-8.  For  WOOLMAN,  see  Sted 
man  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp. 
78-85;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  305-313.] 

Most  students  are  familiar  -with  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  with  Patrick  Henry's  two  best  speeches.  Those  who  are  not 
should  surely  become  so,  and  all  should  if  possible  read  other  selec 
tions  from  Jefferson  and  Henry.  [For  JEFFERSON,  see  Stedman  & 
Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  265-289 ; 
Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  353-361.  For  HENRY,  see 
Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  214-217 ;  Cairns,  Early  American  Writers,  pp.  335-342.] 

The  songs  and  ballads  of  the  Revolution  form  an  interesting 
indication  of  popular  taste.  Selections  may  be  found  in  Moore, 
Songs  and  Ballads  of  the  American  Revolution;  Sargent,  Loyalist 
Poetry  of  the  Revolution;  Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  Library  of  Ameri 
can  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  338-361 ;  Cairns,  Early  American 
Writers,  pp.  449-465;  Bronson,  A merican  Poems,  pp.  66-78.  See 
also  Tyler,  Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolution,  Chapters 
XXVIII,  XXXI. 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  Topics  based  on  the  literary 
qualities  of  political  prose  are  likely  to  be  dull  and  difficult,  but 
those  who  are  interested  may  compare  the  style  and  methods  of 
two  of  the  more  notable  men,  e.g.,  Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  or 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  83 

better  Otis  and  Henry  (as  orators) ;  those  who  have  been  reading 
Burke  may  compare  his  oratory  with  that  of  one  or  more  of  his 
American  contemporaries.  Topics  may  readily  be  found  which 
combine  historical  and  literary  interest,  e.g. :  The  occasions  of 
Patrick  Henry's  great  speeches  (see  biographies  of  Henry  by  Wirt, 
Tyler)  ;  The  History  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  (see 
Hazelton,  The  Declaration  of  Independence,  or  for  less  detailed  and 
exhaustive  accounts,  McClure's  Magazine,  17 :  223 ;  The  Open 
Court,  5 :  2859) ;  The  history  of  the  Federalist  (see  lives  of  Hamilton, 
and  introductions  to  various  editions  of  the  Federalist) ;  Thomas 
Paine's  work  for  American  independence ;  The  Songs  and  Ballads 
(or  one  group  of  them,  loyalist,  patriot,  New  England,  etc.).  The 
tunes  to  which  these  were  adapted  are  still  to  be  found  in  old  col 
lections,  and  they  may  be  sung  to  or  by  the  class.  Political  satire 
also  affords  good  material  for  topics,  e.g. :  McFingal,  either  studied 
alone  or  compared  with  later  political  satire  (The  Biglow  Papers)  ; 
or,  Hopkinson's  political  allegories.  Those  who  can  adopt  a  safe 
middle  course  between  ridicule  and  undue  praise  may  attempt 
papers  on  the  nonpolitical  work  of  the  Hartford  Wits,  e.g. : 
The  Progress  of  D illness  (compare  it  with  McFingal,  or  consider 
how  far  the  satire1  is  applicable  to-day;  See  Tyler,  Literary  His 
tory  of  the  American  Revolution,  Vol.  I,  pp.  215-221) ;  Greenfield 
Hill  (What  English  poets  does  it  suggest?  See  Tyler,  Three  Men 
of  Letters,  pp.  92-97)  ;  or  on  the  Vision  of  Columbus  and  the  Colum- 
biad  (compare  two  corresponding  passages).  Among  possible 
topics  on  Freneau  is  Freneau's  attitude  toward  nature  (may  be 
compared  with  Bryant's  or  Wordsworth's).  The  character  of 
Woolman  as  seen  in  his  Journal  is  worthy  of  consideration ;  or  one 
may  answer  the  question  "Why  did  Charles  Lamb  say  'Get  the 
writings  of  John  Woolman  by  heart'"  ;  or  may  compare  the  Jour- 
ii<il  with  Franklin's  Autobiography.  Among  general  topics  are: 
The  change  in  poetic  ideals  since  the  colonial  time ;  The  development 
of  humor  (traced  in  both  political  and  nonpolitical  writings) ; 
The  development  of  oratory  (trace  especially  the  change  from 
pulpit  to  political  oratory),  etc. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    PERIOD    OF    THE    KNICKERBOCKER    WRITERS 

1800-1833 

The  Trend  of  the  Period.  —  In  the  first  third  of  the  nine 
teenth  century  America  produced  a  considerable  body  of 
writings  that  have  lived  and  seem  destined  to  live  in  general 
remembrance.  Literary  ideals  changed  gradually,  on  the 
whole  for  the  better,  and  intellectual  conditions  became 
saner  and  more  truly  national.  Before  proceeding  to  a  con 
sideration  of  individual  writers,  it  will  be  well  to  fix  in  mind 
a  few  facts  regarding  the  period  in  general. 

In  spite  of  the  disturbance  caused  by  the  War  of  1812, 
literary  relations  with  England  were  close  and  important, 
though  not  wholly  cordial.  Among  the  greater  writers  of 
the  mother  country  at  this  time  wrere  Wordsworth,  Coleridge, 
Scott,  Shelley,  Keats,  and  Byron.  These  belonged  to  the 
so-called  "  Romantic  school,"  which  opposed  the  classic  or 
Popean  school  that  had  furnished  models  for  the  Hartford 
Wits.  Americans  responded  readily  to  the  teachings  of  these 
men,  but  were  not  wholly  carried  away  by  their  theories. 
In  a  literary  controversy  distance  in  space  gives  somewhat 
the  same  advantage  as  distance  in  time.  It  was  probably 
owing  to  the  position  of  American  critics,  rather  than  to  any 
remarkable  literary  acumen,  that  many  of  them  were  selec 
tive  in  their  tastes,  and  that  their  critical  judgments  on  Eng 
lish  writers  were  often  very  like  those  of  posterity.  While 

84 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER   WRITERS      85 

England  was  split  into  two  opposed  factions,  the  classicists 
and  the  romanticists,  Americans  saw  the  beauties  and  the 
defects  of  both  Pope  and  Wordsworth,  and  to  a  certain  ex 
tent  followed  both. 

Contemporary  English  literature  had,  on  the  whole,  a  good 
influence  on  American  writers.  So,  probably,  did  English 
criticism  of  American  authors,  which  was  more  extensive  than 
before.1  Nevertheless,  the  prejudices  that  survived  from  the 
Revolution,  national  jealousy,  and  the  feeling  that  America 
should  be  independent  intellectually  as  well  as  politically, 
united  to  make  international  literary  relations  somewhat 
strained.  Friction  was  increased  by  the  patronizing  writings 
of  British  travelers  in  America,  who  returned  home  after 
brief  visits  and  wrote  unflattering  accounts  of  the  new  coun 
try.  The  charge  was  made  at  the  time,  and  has  often  been 
repeated,  that  American  writers  were  too  subservient  to  Eng 
lish  judgments,  and  that  they  therefore  lacked  the  courage 
to  express  themselves  naturally.2  On  the  other  hand  it  is 
probable  that  the  strictures  of  British  reviewers  helped  to 
diminish  the  feeling  of  patriotic  self-satisfaction,  and  pre 
vented  many  ludicrous  exuberances.  The  whole  subject 
of  the  literary  interrelations  between  England  and  America 
is  an  important  one,  but  is  too  complicated  for  discussion  in  a 
brief  history. 

One  manifestation  of  intellectual  activity  was  the  great 
number  of  magazines  and  literary  papers  founded  during  the 

1  In  the  preceding  period  the  Conquest  of  Canaan,  the  Vision  of 
Columbus,  and  a  good  number  of  other  works  had  been  re  published  in 
England,  and  had  been  reviewed,  often  with  considerable  praise, 
in  the  leading  British  periodicals ;   but  after  1800  there  was  more  of 
this  reprinting  and  reviewing,  and  Englishmen  as  a  class  paid  more 
attention  to  trans-Atlantic  writings. 

2  Many  sensitive  Americans  were  also  troubled  because  American 
writers,  especially  Irving  and  Cooper,  chose  to  live  some  time  abroad. 


86     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

period.  These  sprang  up  by  the  dozens,  almost  by  the  hun 
dreds,  in  all  sections  of  the  country.  They  ranged  from  the 
most  serious  and  bulky  reviews  modeled  after  the  British 
quarterlies  to  "  Magazines  of  Useful  and  Entertaining 
Knowledge,"  which  offered  in  popular  form  information 
culled  from  the  encyclopedias.  Most  of  these  periodicals 
were  short  lived,  some  lasting  only  for  an  issue  or  two;  but 
they  were  evidence  of  a  widespread  interest  in  literary  affairs. 

Along  with  these  more  or  less  popular  movements  went 
development  in  scholarship.  Both  natural  science  and  the 
modern  languages  and  literatures  came  to  receive  more  at 
tention  in  American  colleges.  Several  American  scientists, 
notably  PROFESSOR  SILLIMAN  of  Yale,  were  eminent  both  as 
investigators  and  as  writers.  Both  Noah  Webster's  Dic 
tionary  and  its  one-time  rival  Worcester's  appeared  late  in 
the  period.  Between  1815  and  1820  several  brilliant  young 
men  from  Harvard,  among  them  EDWARD  EVERETT,  the 
orator,  and  GEORGE  BANCROFT,  the  historian,  studied  at 
German  universities  and  brought  back  new7  ideas  of  scholar 
ship  and  educational  methods  which  eventually  changed  the 
character  of  American  colleges.  The  death,  during  the  early 
years  of  the  century,  of  many  of  the  founders  of  the  nation 
called  forth  a  great  number  of  biographical  and  historical 
works,  some  of  real  scholarly  value. 

During  this  period  the  chief  literary  center  of  the  country 
was  in  New  York.  New  England,  which  had  been  hard  hit 
by  the  Revolution,  suffered  still  more  by  the  restrictive 
commercial  legislation  of  the  national  government,  particu 
larly  by  the  embargo  of  1807.  The  result  was  that  the  most 
energetic  young  men  of  New  England  emigrated  to  the 
westward,  where  New  England  influence  is  seen  in  the  forms 
of  government  and  the  educational  institutions  of  several 
states.  New  York,  on  the  other  hand,  prospered.  Along 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      87 

with  other  commercial  development  came  the  establishment 
of  publishing  houses,  newspapers,  and  magazines,  all  of  which 
tended  to  attract  writers  to  the  growing  city. 

NKW  YORK 

The  Knickerbocker  Group. --The  chief  literary  men  of 
New  York  during  the  early  nineteenth  century  are  often 
known  as  the  "  Knickerbocker  Writers."  1  Most  of  these 
were  natives  of  other  sections  of  the  country,  who  had  been 
drawn  to  the  city  by  the  excellence  of  publishing  facilities 
or  for  other  business  reasons.  While  their  personal  relations 
were  in  most  instances  pleasant,  they  made  no  such  closely 
unified  group  as  did  the  Hartford  Wits,  or  the  Boston  and 
Cambridge  writers  of  the  next  generation.  They  had  no 
general  agreement  in  literary  theories,  and  they  exerted  no 
great  influence  on  one  another. 

The  three  greatest  of  the  Knickerbocker  writers  were 
WASHINGTON  IRVING,  JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER,  and 
WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT.  Grouped  about  these  were 

FlTZGREENE     HALLECK,     JOSEPH     RODMAN      DRAKE,     JAMES 

KIRKE  PAULDING,  and  a  number  of  lesser  men,  who,  though 
interesting,  must  be  passed  unnoticed  in  a  brief  survey. 

Washington  Irving.  —  WASHINGTON  IRVING,  the  dean,  as 
it  were,  of  the  Knickerbocker  group,  was  the  only  one  of  the 
three  greater  men  who  was  a  thorough  New  Yorker.  |  He 
was  born  in  1783  in  Xew  York  City,  where  his  father  was  an 
importer  of  cutlery.  As  a  boy  of  rather  delicate  health  and 
the  youngest  son  of  a  well-to-do  family,  he  was  somewhat 
petted  and  left  to  have  his  own  way.  lie  ended  his  school 
ing  at  the  ;ii,re  of  sixteen,  traveled  a  little,  studied  law,  not 

1  This  title  is  of  course  derived  from  Irving's  Knickerbocker's 
History  of  New  York. 


88     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


Washington  Irving. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      89 


Irving  at  the  age  of  22. 


very  earnestly,  and  became  engaged  to  the  daughter  of  his 
law  preceptor.  This  young 
woman  died  in  1809,  and 
the  fact  that  a  man  of 
Irving's  genial  and  domes 
tic  tastes  never  married  is 
proof  how  much  the  tragedy 
meant  to  him.  After  the 
war  in  1812,  which  was  nat 
urally  a  severe  blow  to  a 
house  which  dealt  mostly  in 
merchandise  imported  from 
Sheffield,  Irving-  became  a 
member  of  the  cutlery  firm, 
and  was  sent  to  England  to 
straighten  out  its  tangled 
affairs.  In  1818  the  busi 
ness  failed,  and  Irving  turned  to  literature.  He  remained 
abroad  until  is: 52,  working  first  in  England,  then  in  Spain, 
then  in  England  again.  On  his  return  to 
America  he  settled  at  Sunnyside  on  the 
Hudson,  where  he  lived  quietly,  except 
for  four  years'  service  as  minister  to 
Spain,  until  his  death  in  1859. 

It  is  easiest  to  remember  Irving's  writ 
ings  by  placing  them  in  five  groups,  which 
correspond,  in  general,  to  the  periods  of 
his  life.     The  first  group  includes  the  work 
supposed  authors  of    produced  before  the  failure  of  the  cutlery 

the'Snumbe^0      firm  in   1818-     When  a  boy  of  nineteen, 

he  wrote  for  a    New  York  newspaper  a 

-cries  of  essays  which  he  signed  "Jonathan  Oldstyle,"  and 

five  years  later  he  joined  with  his  brother,  William  Irving, 


L&uncelot   Lang- 
staff  —  one    of    the 


90      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER   WRITERS      91 

and  a  friend,  James  Kirke  Paulding,  in  the  production  of  a 
more  ambitious  series,  Salmagundi.  These  are  unimportant 
in  themselves,  but  are  valuable  as  reminders  that  Irving 
began  with  imitations  of  the  Spectator,  as  American  boys  of 
literary  instincts  had  been  doing  for  half  a  century.  Hi 
juvenile  pen  name,  Jonathan  Oldstyle,  also  suggests  certain 
qualities  which  are  found  in  all  his  writings. 

The  one  important  work  of  the  first  period  is  Knicker 
bocker's  History  of  Xew  York,  published  in  1809.  In  this 
Irving  got  away  from  the  strict  Addisonian  tradition,  and 
especially  from  the  tendency  to  preach  which  characterized 
most  youthful  imitations  of  Addison.  The  History  purports 
to  be  the  work  of  Diedrich  Knickerbocker,  a  descendant  of 
the  old  Dutch  settlers,  who  writes  of  the  three  early  Dutch 
governors  of  New  York.1  According  to  tradition  it  was 
planned  as  a  burlesque  on  pedantic  histories,  but  Irving 
abandoned  this  design  and  let  his  humorous  fancy  lead  him 
where  it  would.  He  had  begun  the  work  before  the  death  of 
his  betrothed,  and  forced  himself  to  finish  it  as  a  distraction 
from  his  grief.  Though,  like  much  eighteenth-century 
English  fun,  it  occasionally  grows  too  free  to  suit  modern 
taste,  it  is  an  American  classic,  and  one  of  the  acknowledged 
masterpieces  of  American  humor. 

The  second  group  of  Irving's  writings  includes  the  three 
works  produced  in  England  after  the  failure  of  the  cutlery 
business.  The  earliest  of  these  was  the  Sketch  Hook,  the 
first  parts  of  which  were  published  in  1S1(,),  just  ten  years 

1  Irving  hoaxed  the  public  by  publishing  in  the  New  York  news 
papers,  first,  an  account  of  the  disappearance  of  Diedrich  Knicker 
bocker  from  his  boarding  place;  next,  an  advertisement  signed  by 
the  supposed  landlord,  who  gave  formal  notice  that  unless  Diedrich 
Knickerbocker  returned  by  a  certain  day  a  manuscript  which  he  had 
left  would  be  published  to  pay  his  board  bill.  The  ///*/<>/•//  was  then 
announced  as  this  manuscript. 


92      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


after  the  Knickerbocker's  History.  Irving  had  now  decided  to 
depend  on  literature  for  a  livelihood,  and  he  turned  for  ma 
terial  partly  to  the  romantic  traditions  of  the  Hudson  River 

valley,  with  which  he 
was  familiar  as  a  boy, 
partly  to  his  experi 
ences  and  observa 
tions  of  travel.1  Pres- 
ent-day  readers 
prefer  the  former, 
especially  the  two 
stories  "  Rip  van 
Winkle  "  and  the 
"  Legend  of  Sleepy 
Hollow,"  but  at  the 
time  of  publication, 
before  travelers'  de 
scriptions  had  become 
so  common,  the  pic 
tures  of  English  life, 
and  particularly  the 
sketches  of  English 
Christmas  customs, 
wrere  also  enthusias 
tically  received.  The 
book  was  very  popu 
lar  in  both  England 
and  America,  and  Irving  at  once  set  to  work  on  Bracebridge 

1  It  is  to  be  feared  that  many  readers  miss  the  point  of  the  title, 
Sketch  Book,  by  Geoffrey  Crayon  Gent.  In  Irving's  day  sketch 
ing  was  a  common  and  valued  accomplishment,  and  a  tourist  carried 
his  sketch-book  and  crayons  as  he  now  carries  his  kodak.  The 
name  "Geoffrey"  may  reflect  Irving's  fondness  for  the  quaint  and 
old-fashioned. 


Joseph  Jefferson  as  Rip  van  Winkle. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      93 

Hall,  in  which  he  continues  the  two  kinds  of  sketches  that 
had  been  most  praised  —  the  accounts  of  Christmas  customs 
in  England,  and  the  Hudson  River  traditions.  The  third 
volume  of  this  group,  the  Tales  of  a  Traveller,  appeared  in 
1824.  By  this  time  Irving  had,  so  to  speak,  written  himself 


Ichabod  Crane's  school;   by  Darlcy,  a  famous  early  American 
illustrator. 

out,  as  is  shown  by  the  somewhat  scrappy  contents  of  this 
last  collection.  It  contains  stories  which  he  had  gathered 
during  continental  travel,  sketches  made  by  cutting  up  an 
abandoned  novel,  and  some  miscellaneous  pieces.  While 
worth  reading,  it  is  inferior  to  the  two  works  that  immedi 
ately  preceded  it. 

In  the  Sketch  Book  Irving  had  gotten  away  from  both  the 
manner  of  X(ihn(ir/ini(!i  and   that   of    Knickerbocker's    His- 


94      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

tory,  and  had  developed  a  style  of  his  own.  Suggestions 
there  are,  of  course,  of  English  authors,  especially  of  the 
more  quiet,  formal,  and  humorous  writers  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  there  was  no  direct  imitation.  The  most  notice 
able  characteristics  of  all  these  works  are  a  fondness  for  the 
old-fashioned  and  the  picturesque  in  both  subject  and  style, 
humor,  sentiment  which  rarely  becomes  sentimentality,  and 
that  indescribable  good  taste  which  alwrays  reminds  us  that 
the  author  was  a  gentleman. 

The  third  group  of  Irving's  writings  deals  with  Spanish 
subjects.  After  the  Tales  of  a  Traveller  Irving  looked  about 
for  new  literary  material,  and  finally  went  to  Spain,  where 
he  planned  to  translate  a  treatise  on  Columbus.  He  soon 
decided,  however,  on  an  original  work.  The  most  important 
results  of  this  Spanish  residence  were  the  Life  of  Columbus, 
the  Com/next  of  Granada,  and  the  Alhambra.1  The  Life  of 
Columbus  is  a  serious,  painstaking,  and  well-written  work, 
but  Irving  wras  not  at  his  best  as  a  biographer.  The  boy  who 
left  school  at  sixteen  had  not  acquired  the  training  in  scholarly 
methods  which  the  modern  historian  needs,  and  a  man  of 
Irving's  temperament  was  a  little  too  likely  to  see  the  pictur 
esque  rather  than  the  important  events  in  his  hero's  career. 
The  Conquest  of  Granada  is  in  the  form  of  a  chronicle  sup 
posed  to  be  written  by  an  old  monk.  This  use  of  an  imag 
inary  author  worked  well  in  case  of  the  humorous  Knicker 
bocker's  Neu'  York,  but  was  less  successful  in  an  attempt  to 
portray  serious  history.  The  Conquest  of  Granada  contains, 
however,  many  fine  bits  of  description  and  narration. 

1  Other  works  in  this  group  were  the  Voyages  of  the  Companions  of 
Columbus,  and  the  Legends  of  the  Conquest  of  Spain.  The  latter  is 
said  to  have  been  written  while  the  author  was  in  Spain,  but  was 
published  much  later.  The  Voyages  of  the  Companions  of  Columbus 
and  the  Alhambra  were  finished  in  England,  whither  Irving  re 
turned  in  1829. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER   WRITERS      95 


The  most  popular  book  of  the  Spanish  group  has  been  the 
A  lhambra.  Irving  made  two  extended  visits  to  the  old  Moor 
ish  palace  from  which  this  work  takes  its  name,  and  while 
there  collected  the  numerous  legends  which  he  recounts  so 
successfully,  and  material  for  the  descriptions  which  accom 
pany  them.  The  Alhambra  has  been  called  a  "  Spanish 
Sketch  Book."  It  contains  more  narrative  than  its  English 
prototype,  and  has  a  little  less  strength  and  virility  of  style, 
and  more  of  the  half  serious,  ironical 
way  of  looking  at  things  which  the  au 
thor  of  Knickerbocker  always  retained. 

The  last  two  groups  of  Irving's  writ 
ings  fall  outside  the  strict  limits  of  the 
period  under  discussion.  On  his  return 
to  America  in  1832  after  an  absence  of 
seventeen  years,  there  was  a  demand 
from  patriotic  admirers  that  the  greatest 
American  author  should  write  some 
thing  on  purely  American  themes. 
Irving  seems  to  have  recognized 
clearly  that  his  genius  was  best  fitted 
to  deal  with  the  old,  the  romantic, 
and  the  picturesque.  Nevertheless,  lie 
did,  between  1833  and  1837,  produce 
a  group  of  writings  on  American  subjects.  He  made  a 
journey  with  a  government  exploring  party  to  the  region 
west  of  the  Mississippi  and  wrote  his  experiences  in 
A  Tour  on  the  Prairies.  He  compiled  from  the  papers  of 
John  Jacob  Astor  an  account  of  that  merchant's  remark 
able  fur-trading  ventures  on  the  Pacific  coast,  which  he 
called  Astoria;  and  he  bought  from  a  Western  adventurer 
a  crude  manuscript  narrative  which  he  put  in  shape  and  pub 
lished  as  the  Adventures  of  C(t/>f(i//i  Bonneritte.  All  this  is 


An  English  cartoon  of 
Irving. 


96      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER   WRITERS     97 

good,  respectable  work,  readable  to-day  if  one  gets  started 
on  it,  but  it  is  the  least  valuable  part  of  Irving's  writings. 

The  fifth  and  last  group  of  writings  includes  a  Life  of 
H'ashington,  a  Life  of  (loldxniith,  and  a  Life  of  Mahomet. 
As  a  work  of  literature  the  Goldsmith  is  the  best,  and  is  in 
deed  delightful  reading,  though  for  students  it  is  superseded^ 
by  other  biographies  based  on  more  recent  scholarship.  The 
comments  which  have  been  made  on  the  Life  of  Columbus 
apply,  on  the  whole,  to  the  Life  of  Washington. 

It  is  proof  of  Irving's  conscientiousness  as  a  writer  that  all 
his  work  is  so  surprisingly  uniform  in  quality.  Practically 
everything  that  he  wrote  is  included  in  his  collected  works, 
and  there  is  nothing  of  which  he  need  have  been  ashamed. 
His  most  important  volumes  are,  however,  Knicker 
bocker's  History  of  Xeic  York,  the  Sketch  Book,  Bracebridge 
Hall,  the  Tales  of  a  Traveller,  the  Alhambra,  and  the  Con 
quest  of  Granada.  If  a  still  more  restricted  list  were  required, 
most  readers  would  probably  agree  on  Knickerbocker 's 
History,  the  Sketch  Book,  and  the  Alhambra.  Irving  is 
one  of  those  writers  whose  charm  defies  formal  analysis. 
The  most  important  characteristics  of  his  style,  so  far  as  they 
can  be  summarized,  have  been  mentioned  in  the  discussion 
of  individual  works.  A  word  remains  to  be  said  on  his  im 
portance  in  the  development  of  American  literature.  He 
was  the  first  of  the  greater  American  writers  of  the  nine 
teenth  century,  and  he  was  the  author  of  the  first  American 
books,  with  the  exception  of  Franklin's  Autobiography, 
which  a  cultured  American  need  be  ashamed  to  say  he  has 
not  read.  He  was  the  first  American  of  note  to  write  without 
a  didactic  purpose.  The  important  writers  who  preceded 
him,  and  some  of  those  who  followed  him,  seemed  to  feel 
that  in  whatever  they  wrote  they  must  either  teach  or  preach. 
Knickerbocker's  History,  the  Sketch  Book,  and  the  Alhambra 


98      AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


James  Fenimore  Cooper. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      99 

offer  us,  not  useful  information  or  direct  exhortation 
to  moral  or  spiritual  good,  but  only  clean,  refined,  artistic 
enjoyment.  Finally,  Irving  was  the  first  American  to  win 
general  recognition  abroad  purely  as  a  writer.  Both  the  ex 
cellence  of  his  works  and  the  charm  of  his  personality  did 
much  to  promote  a  better  feeling  between  English  and 
American  men  of  letters.1 

James  Fenimore  Cooper.  —  JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER, 
the  second  of  the  greater  Knickerbocker  writers,  did  not  come 
to  New  York  City  until  his  literary  career  was  well  under  way. 
He  was  born  in  New  Jersey  in  1789,  but  spent  his  boyhood 
at  Cooperstown,  New  York,  then  a  frontier  village  which  his 
father  had  founded.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  entered 
Yale  College,  was  dismissed  for  some  misdemeanor,  and 
sailed  on  a  merchant  vessel  as  a  preparation  for  the  navy.2 
He  was  commissioned  midshipman  in  1808.  Three  years 
later  he  married,  and  resigned  from  the  service,  and  for 
several  years  lived  with  no  special  occupation  except  man 
aging  his  estates.  It  was  not  until  1820,  when  Cooper  was 
thirty-one  years  of  age,  that  he  wrote  his  first  novel,  Pre 
caution.3  This  is  a  story  of  fashionable  English  life,  of  a  sort 

1  During  his  long  period  of  residence  abroad  Irving  was  cordially 
welcomed  in  the  best  social  and  literary  circles  of  England,  and  was 
a  close  friend  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Thomas  Moore,  and  many  other 
prominent  English  men  of  letters. 

-  This  was  before  the  days  of  the  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis, 
and  officers  in  the  navy  secured  their  preliminary  training  in  the 
life  of  a  sailor  on  board  some  merchant  vessel. 

3  Before  this  Cooper  had  written  nothing  for  publication,  and 
the  tradition  is  that  he  disliked  writing  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
often  neglected  necessary  correspondence.  One  day,  while  reading 
a  dull  story,  he  said  to  his  wife,  "I  could  write  a  better  novel  than 
that  myself."  "Why  don't  you,  then  ?  "  replied  Mrs.  Cooper,  skepti 
cally.  Cooper  was  not  the  sort  of  man  to  decline  a  "dare,"  and  he 
began  at  once  on  Precaution.  What  is  more  remarkable,  he 
finished  it. 


100     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

which  modern  readers  find  very  dull.  The  next  year,  how 
ever,  he  wrote  the  Spy,  his  first  historical  novel,  and  followed 
this  in  1823  with  the  Pioneers,  his  first  frontier  tale,  and  the 
Pilot,  his  first  sea  story.  In  1822  he  removed  to  New  York. 
From  this  time  until  his  death  in  1851,  he  wrote  almost 
steadily.  Besides  his  thirty-two  novels  he  published  a  History 
of  the  Xavy  of  the  United  States,  ten  volumes  of  travels,  and 
many  miscellaneous  and  controversial  works.  From  1826 
to  1833  he  was  in  Europe,  and  traveled  much,  but  in  the 
seven  years  he  produced  seven  novels,  besides  other  writings. 
On  his  return  to  America,  he  became  involved  in  a  series  of 
controversies  with  American  newspapers  which  embittered 
his  later  years,  and  which  had  a  bad  effect  on  some  of  his 
later  work.1 

Cooper's  best  novels  fall  into  three  groups  —  the  historical 
tales,  of  which  the  only  noteworthy  representative  is  the  Spy; 
the  frontier  stories,  of  which  the  most  important  are  the  five 
Leather  stocking  Tales;  and  the  sea  stories,  of  which  the  best 
is  the  Pilot 2  and  the  next  best  the  Red  Rover.  Manv  of  the 


1  One  cause  of  the  controversy  was  a  quarrel  between  Cooper  and 
his  neighbors  over  the  right  of  the  public  to  use  as  a  picnic  ground 
some  land  belonging  to  the  family  estate.     A  more  serious  cause  was 
found  in  the  criticisms  of  America  and  the  advice  to  his  country 
men,  which  he  published  after  he  went  abroad.     Cooper  seems  to 
have  been  a  good-hearted  man  who  was  wholly  lacking  in  tact,  and 
who  had  a  marvelous  ability  for  irritating  and  offending  people 
when  he  really  wished  them  Avell.     It  is  now  plain  that  he  was  one 
of  the  most  loyal  of  Americans,  but  it  is  easy  to  see  how  editors  were 
perfectly  conscientious  when  they  accused  him  of  lack  of  patriotism, 
and  called  him  a  defamer  of  his  country.     Cooper  brought  suit 
against  several  prominent  newspapers,  conducted   them  in  person, 
though  he  was  not  a  lawyer,  and  won  almost  all  of  them.     For  more 
details  of  this  unfortunate  affair  one  must  see  Professor  Lounsbury's 
Life  of  Cooper. 

2  The  Pilot  might  also  be  ranked  as  an  historical  novel,  since  the 
hero  is  a  real  person,  John  Paul  Jones. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER   WRITERS      101 

other  stories  have  special  excellences,  but  most  also  have 
marked  defects.  Some  were  written  with  a  controversial 
purpose  and  showed  a  little  ill-temper,  others  were  spoiled 
by  didacticism.  Of  those  named,  all  but  two,  the  Path 
finder  and  the  Deerslayer,  were  written  before  1833. 

The  Spy  was  based  on  a  story  which  the  author  had  heard 
regarding  one  of  Washington's  secret  service  agents  in  the 
Revolution.  One  of  the  characters  is  recognized  as  Wash 
ington  in  disguise,  though  his  real  name  is  never  mentioned. 
The  scene  is  laid  in  Westchester  county,  New  York,  a  region 
with  which  the  author  was  thoroughly  familiar.  The  Pio 
neers  has  as  its  hero  Nathaniel  Bumpo,  generally  known  as 
Leatherstocking,  an  old  hunter  such  as  Cooper's  father 
doubtless  found  living  in  the  woods  when  he  established 
his  frontier  settlement,  and  it  pictures  many  frontier  scenes 
which  must  have  been  familiar  to  the  author  as  a  boy.  After 
creating  the  character  of  Leatherstocking  in  the  Pioneers, 
Cooper  wTrote  four  other  tales,  the  Last  of  the  Mohicans 
(1826),  the  Prairie  (1827),  the  Pathfinder  (1840),  and  the 
Deerslayer  (1841),  which  if  taken  in  proper  order  give  the  life 
history  of  this  hero.1  The  Pilot  is  said  to  have  been  under 
taken  to  prove  that  an  author  who  really  knew  the  sea  could 
make  more  of  the  sailor's  life  than  Scott  had  done  in  the 
Pirate.  As  his  hero  Cooper  chose  the  American  fighter  and 
adventurer  John  Paul  Jones.  The  Red  Rover,  which  though 
exciting  is  regarded  by  most  readers  as  inferior  to  the  Pilot, 

1  In  the  Deerslayer,  Leatherstocking  is  a  young  man,  just  show 
ing  his  capacity  for  woodcraft ;  in  the  Last  of  the  Mohicans,  he  is 
the  scout  and  hunter  in  his  early  prime;  in  the  I 'nth  finder,  he  is 
a  somewhat  elderly  lover,  who  resigns  the  one  woman  he  has  admired 
to  a  younger  rival;  in  the  Pioneers,  he  is  the  hunter  already  past 
middle  life,  who  feels  crowded  by  the  advancing  settlements ;  in 
the  Prairie,  he  is  the  old  man  driven  forth  by  the  on-coming  civi 
lization  to  die  on  the  great  plains  of  the  West. 


102    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


*  -. 

s»%,       *•    ••, 


Monument  on  site  of  Otsego  Hall,  Cooper's  residence  at  Cooperstown. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      103 

tells  of  adventures  on  an  English  ship  manned  by  American 
colonists  before  the  Revolution. 

In  the  better  stories  of  Cooper  the  element  of  adventure 
is  prominent.  All  show  certain  defects  and  certain  excel 
lences  which  are  characteristic  of  the  author.  The  chief  de 
fects  are  such  as  might  be  expected  from  Cooper's  lack  of 
early  literary  training,  from  the  haste  with  which  he  wrote, 
and  from  his  temperament.  He  is  occasionally  guilty  of 
rhetorical  and  in  a  few  cases  even  of  grammatical  crudities 
which  a  more  careful  and  deliberate  writer  would  have 
avoided.  lie  failed,  or  at  least  succeeded  but  imperfectly, 
in  representing  more  complex  types  of  character,  such  as  the 
men  and  the  women  of  the  cities.  His  attempts  at  humor 
are  often  unsuccessful.  It  is  also  sometimes  said  that  his 
stronger  characters,  and  especially  his  Indians,  are  untrue 
to  life  and  are  only  bookish  aggregations  of  virtues  and  vices. 
There  is  undoubtedly  a  certain  amount  of  truth  in  this  last 
charge,  but  the  same  fault  might  be  found  with  most  other 
tales  of  adventure.1 

1  Cooper's  defects  are  perfectly  obvious,  but  it  will  generally  be 
found  that  the  reader  who  is  greatly  troubled  by  them  cares  little 
for  any  stories  of  adventure.  The  whole  question  of  realism  and 
romanticism  in  fiction  comes  in  here.  The  romanticist  likes  to 
picture  his  heroes  as  all  heroic,  his  villains  as  wholly  bad,  his  beau 
tiful  heroines  as  always  beautiful.  The  realist  protests  that  men 
are  not  really  so  simply  constituted,  that  every  character  contains 
some  good  and  some  bad  elements.  The  romanticist  answers  that 
though  this  is  true,  we  all  like  to  imagine  our  friends  as  perfect 
and  our  enemies  as  wholly  evil.  From  this  the  two  opposing  schools 
may  pass  to  more  weighty  and  more  subtle  arguments,  but  at  the 
end  the  question  what  each  reader  likes  will  depend  on  his  tempera 
ment.  Many  critics,  among  them  Mark  Twain,  have  pointed  out 
inconsistencies  and  impossibilities  in  Cooper's  descriptions  and  nar 
ratives.  The  only  possible  defense  is  thul  the  person  who  reads  the 
story  as  Cooper  intended  it  to  be  read  never  notices  the  discrep 
ancies  and  that  it  is  as  unfair  to  search  them  out  as  to  examine  the 
trees  and  stones  in  an  oil  painting  with  a  magnifying  glass.  A 


104    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

It  may  be  said  to  Cooper's  credit  that,  in  his  better  works 
at  least,  he  regarded  his  own  limitations,  and  attempted  only 
the  things  that  he  could  do.  His  chief  characters,  such  as 
Harvey  Birch  in  the  Spy,  Long  Tom  Coffin  in  the  Pilot,  and 
Leatherstocking  are  plain,  healthy  men  of  the  sort  that  he 
understood  well  and  could  portray.  His  plots,  while  they 
may  be  technically  weak,  are  simple,  and  usually  move  to  an 
end  that  is  inevitable.  His  work  is  always  clean,  and  fresh, 
and  highminded.  When  one  thinks  how  cheap,  melodra 
matic,  and  blood-curdling  other  writers  have  often  made  the 
story  of  frontier  life,  one  can  better  appreciate  how  well 
Cooper  handled  his  material.  For  many  readers  his  descrip 
tions  of  nature  have  great  charm.  Long  descriptive  passages 
in  novels  are  now  generally  viewed  with  disfavor,  but 
Cooper's,  though  longer  than  most,  are  so  spontaneous  and 
seem  so  much  a  part  of  the  story  that  the  temptation  to  skip 
them  is  small. 

Though  Charles  Brockden  Brown  was  an  honorable  pred 
ecessor,  Cooper  was  the  first  American  novelist  to  win  gen 
eral  and  lasting  popularity.  His  works  have  been  translated 
into  many  different  languages,  and  have  been  read,  and  are 
still  read,  the  world  over.1  In  many  respects  he  was  a  liter 
ary  pioneer.  In  choice  of  subjects  he  took  a  hint  from 
Scott,  but  Scott  had  little  influence  on  his  literary  manner. 

student  —  a  young  woman  by  the  way  —  recently  objected  that 
the  heroines  in  the  Last  of  the  Mohicans  were  represented  as  beauti 
ful  and  attractive  throughout,  though  women  who  endured  the  hard 
ships  of  the  forest  for  days  without  toilet  facilities  would  be  "per 
fect  frights."  Perhaps  she  was  right.  How  many  of  the  readers 
who  have  enjoyed  Cooper's  tale  thought  of  it  as  they  read  ? 

1  Cooper  has  always  been  a  favorite  in  Germany,  and  there  are 
several  translations  of  his  works  into  German.  That  his  popularity 
is  not  confined  to  lower-class  readers  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
at  least  two  expensive  "de  luxe"  editions  of  his  works  have  appeared 
in  Germany  during  the  last  three  years. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS     105 


He  created  three  types  of  American  novel  —  the  historical 
novel,  the  sea  tale,  and  the  tale  of  frontier  and  Indian  life. 
The  latter,  especially,  has  been  attempted  hundreds  of  times, 
but  Cooper's  stories  still  remain  the  best  of  their  class. 

William  Cullen  Bryant.  —  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT, 
the  third  of  the  greater  Knickerbocker  writers,  also  came  to 
New  York  after  he  was  well  started  on  his  career.  He  was 
born  in  Cummington,  Massachu 
setts,  in  1794.  He  spent  one  year 
at  Williams  College,  but  left  at  the 
age  of  seventeen  to  take  up  the 
study  of  law.  When  only  thirteen 
he  had  written  the  Embargo,  a  po 
litical  satire  that  was  twice  pub 
lished.  As  literature  this  was  of 
course  worthless,  but  it  shows  his 
early  development.  At  the  age  of 
seventeen  or  eighteen  he  wrote  the 
greater  part  of  '  Thanatopsis,"  1 
and  at  nineteen  '  To  a  Water 
fowl."  His  first  volume  of  poems, 

a  thin  pamphlet,  appeared  in  1821.  Meanwhile,  he  had 
been  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  he  continued  as  a  moder 
ately  successful  country  lawyer  until  1825.  During  this 
time  his  literary  associations  were  mostly  with  Boston; 
but  in  1825  he  abandoned  his  law  practice  and  removed  to 
New  York,  where  he  became  editor  of  a  short-lived  magazine, 
and  later  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post.  For  more  than 
fifty  years  he  was  a  New  York  newspaper  man,  having  part 
of  the  time  both  the  business  and  the  financial  management 
of  the  Post.  He  died  in  1878. 


William  Culleu  Bryant. 


1  The  poem  was  not  published  until  1817.     The  last  paragraph 
was  written  later. 


106    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


The   Embargo. 

1UST  publiOttd,  zn4  for  file.  by 
J     HASTINGS,  BTHBRIDGH  v  BI.I >s. 
THE  EMBARGO  :— Or 

SutTeiii  of  Tisi   TIMI»— •    Satire,  (hi  fcesod 

Edition,  corrtlted  Md  «»l»rjed — Toother  with 

the  SPANISH  RBVOLUTtOM.  «n«l  other   Pocmi, 

By  WILLIAM  CBkMtt 


An  advertisement  of  Bryant's  juvenile  satire. 


As  an  editor  Bryant  did  much  to  improve  the  character  of 
newspaper  English,  both  by  his  example  and  by  rules  that  he 

laid  down  for  the  guid 
ance  of  his  subordi 
nates.  He  also  wrote 
a  number  of  creditable 
tales,  sketches,  and  mis 
cellaneous  essays.  It 
is  as  a  poet,  however, 
that  he  deserves  to  be 
remembered.  He  wrote  poetry  for  more  than  seventy  years, 
yet  his  total  output  was  small  —  smaller  than  that  of  any 
other  American  poet  of  first  rank 
except  Poe.  As  has  been  seen, 
two  of  his  best  poems  were  writ 
ten  before  he  was  twenty  years 
of  age;  and  nearly  one  third  of 
his  verse  had  been  written  be 
fore  he  came  to  New  York  in 
1825.1  The  other  two  thirds  of 
the  contents  of  his  rather  thin 
volume  was  composed  as  he 
found  time  during  the  remain 
ing  fifty-three  years  of  his  life. 
It  may  be  because  poetry  was  an 
avocation,  to  be  indulged  in  only 
when  all  things  were  favorable, 

that  his  work  is  so  nearly  uniform.     He  never  excelled,  per 
haps  never  equaled,  his  two  early  poems  "  Thanatopsis  " 

1  This  estimate  does  not  take  into  account  his  verse  translation 
of  Homer,  which  he  made  late  in  life  as  an  intellectual  diversion 
after  the  death  of  his  wife.  It  is  a  very  literal  version,  and  it  has 
some  poetic  excellences,  but  it  is  not  one  of  the  works  on  which  the 
poet's  fame  rests. 


Bryant  in  his  earlier  years. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      107 

and  "  To  a  Waterfowl,"  but  he  rarely  failed  to  maintain  a 
high  standard. 

As  a  poet  Bryant  was  influenced  by  Wordsworth,  and  in 
his  early  years  by  a  group  of  sentimental  and  melancholy 
English  poets  who  are  now  almost  forgotten  —  among  them 
Blair,  author  of  the  "  Grave  "  and  Henry  Kirke  White. 
It  was  while  fresh  from  the  reading  of  this  latter  group  that 


Bryant's  home  at  Roslyn,  Long  Island. 

he  wrote  "  Thanatopsis."  The  influence  of  Wordsworth 
is  seen  in  his  verse  form,  though  he  never  imitated  slavishly, 
and  also  perhaps  in  his  fondness  for  subjects  taken  from 
nature.  His  attitude  toward  nature  was,  however,  wholly 
different  from  that  of  Wordsworth.  He  loved  the  flowers 
and  the  forests,  but  he  did  not  go  to  them  for  any  special 
philosophical  teaching.  If  he  drew  morals  from  them,  it 
was  by  means  of  some  simple  comparison.  Indeed,  it  is  one 
of  his  weaknesses  that  his  rather  obvious  morals  often  seem 


108     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

to  form  no  necessary  part  of  the  poems  to  which  they  are 
attached.1 

Personal  characteristics  of  Bryant  show  themselves  in  his 
poems.  He  was  somewhat  cold,  and  though  not  in  the  least 
gloomy  or  morbid  he  had  a  fondness  for  quiet  melancholy. 
His  favorite  seasons  were  the  winter  and  the  autumn.2  Two 
things  appealed  to  him  with  particular  force:  first,  nature, 
especially  in  her  simpler  forms,  such  as  the  witods  and  the 
common  flowers;  and,  second,  the  thought  of  the  eternal 
change  which  is  always  going  on  in  the  universe,  and  of  which 
death  is  a  part.  Both  these  ideas  appear  in  "  Thanatopsis," 
where  he  shows  his  fondness  for  the  quiet  woods,  and  views 
death,  not  in  relation  to  a  future  life,  and  not  as  a  breaking 
of  ties  with  loved  ones,  but  as  part  of  the  great  universal 
change  to  which  all  created  things  are  subject.  Many 
of  his  other  poems  show  the  same  ideas,  either  singly  or 
combined.3 

Bryant's  influence  as  a  literary,  man  was  of  a  sort  that 
America  needed.  Many  of  his  contemporaries,  as  will  be 
seen  later  in  this  chapter,  were  inclined  to  favor  hurried, 
"  inspired,"  poetic  composition.  Bryant  treated  poetry  as 
a  high  art,  to  be  practiced  quietly  and  painstakingly.  Even 

1  See,  for  example,  "Thanatopsis,"  "The  West  Wind,"  "Hymn 
to  the  North  Star,"  "A  Forest  Hymn,"  and  others.     As  has  been 
seen,    the    moralizing  paragraph  of    "Thanatopsis"  was    actually 
written  after  the  rest  of  the  poem  had  been  published. 

2  Among  his  poems  with  winter  settings  are  his  fairy  story,  "The 
Little  People  of  the  Snow,"  and  his  love  song,  beginning  "Soon  as 
the  glazed  and  gleaming    snow."     Most   fairy  tales,  and  the  love 
songs  of  most  poets  seem  naturally  to  have  a  spring  or  summer 
background.     For  his  treatment  of  the  autumn  see  "The  Death  of 
the  Flowers,"  "Autumn  Woods,"  "November,"  etc. 

3  See  for  poems  on  nature  "The  Yellow  Violet,"  "To  the  Fringed 
Gentian,"  "The  Painted  Cup,"  "Evening  Wind,"  and  very  many 
others  ;  for  the  idea  of  change  see  "The  Past,"  "The  Ages,"  "Hymn 
to  the  North  Star,"  etc. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      109 


as  a  boy,  while  other  poets  were  rushing  into  print  with  verses 
written  in  a  few  hours,  he  kept  "  Thanatopsis  "  by  him,  un 
published,  for  several  years.  It  was  fortunate  tfiat  for  at 
least  a  quarter  of  a  century  a  man  with  this  sane  view  was 
generally  respected  by  his  countrymen  as  their  greatest 
poet.  Unlike  Irving  .and  Cooper,  he  never  won  great  fame 
abroad,  and  to-day  few  critics  would  rank  him  as  high  as  some 
of  his  successors,  but  his  position  in  the  history  of  American 
literature  is  secure,  and  some  of  his  poems  seem  as  certain  to 
endure  as  does  any  American  verse.  His  range  is  limited,  and 
he  appeals  to 
readers  only  when 
they  are  in  certain 
moods,  but  his 
best  work  has  a 
restraint  and  a 
calm  dignity 
which  few,  if  any, 
other  American 
poets  have  sur 
passed. 

Lesser  New 
York  Writers.  - 
Irving,  the  essayist,  Cooper,  the  romancer,  and  Bryant,  the 
poet,  seem  sure  of  permanent  places  in  the  history  of  Ameri 
can  literature,  but  most  of  their  New  York  contemporaries 
are  passing  into  oblivion,  or  are  remembered  only  as  the 
authors  of  single  works.  FiTzGREENE  HALLECK  was  an 
other  New  Englander  who  was  attracted  to  the  commercial 
center  of  the  country.  For  many  years  he  held  a  clerkship 
in  a  New  York  business  house,  and  made  poetry  an  avoca 
tion.  He  joined  with  his  friend  Joseph  Rodman  Drake  in 
writing  the  Croaker  Poems,  a  series  of  clever  comments  on 


Bryant,  Daniel  Webster,  and  Irving  at  the  me 
morial  services  for  Cooper  in  1852. 


110    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


current  topics,  which  appeared  anonymously  in  the  Evening 
Post.  These  verses  are  still  remembered  for  the  stir  they 
made  in  tlheir  day,  but  most  readers  will  find  them  un 
interesting.  Halleck's  masters  were  Campbell  and  Byron, 
and  his  longest  piece,  "  Fanny,"  is  slightly  suggestive  of 
Don  Juan.  His  best  known  poems  are  "  Marco  Bozzaris," 

long  a  favorite  school 
declamation,  and  the 
lines  on  the  death  of 
his  friend  Drake.1 

JOSEPH  RODMAN 
DRAKE  was  a  native  of 
Xew  York  City,  who, 
after  suffering  various 
hardships  from  ill- 
health  and  poverty, 
died  in  1820  at  the 
early  age  of  twenty- 
five.  His  poetic  gift 
was  apparently  greater 
than  that  of  Halleck. 
His  one  poem  of  im 
portance  is  "  The  Cul 
prit  Fay,"  in  which  he 

tries  to  show  that  American  scenes  may  inspire  imagina 
tive  poetry,  by  narrating  the  adventures  of  a  fairy  on  the 
shores  of  the  Hudson  River.  The  work  is  very  uneven,  and 
gives  evidence  of  immaturity,  but  is  highly  fanciful,  and  in 

1  The  gem  of  this  poem,  and  probably  the  best  thing  Halleck  ever 
wrote,  is  the  stanza  : 

"Green  be  the  turf  above  thee, 

Friend  of  my  better  days  ! 
None  knew  thee  but  to  love  thee, 
Nor  named  thee  but  to  praise." 


FitzGreene  Halleck. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      111 


places  truly  lyrical.1  Some  lines  of  "The  American  Flag," 
once  a  favorite  of  the  school  readers,  run  smoothly,  but  the 
bombastic  imagery  of  the  poem  now  seems  almost  ludicrous. 
Three  New  York  writers  of  some  fame  in  their  own  day  are 
now  remembered  each  for  a  single  song.  JOHN  HOWARD 
PAYNE,  the  author  of  "  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  led  a  wander 
ing  life,  but  he  was 
born  in  New  York, 
and  belongs  to  that 
city  if  to  any  par 
ticular  spot.  He 
was  connected  with 
the  stage  in  Europe 
and  America,  and 
wrote,  translated, 
and  adapted  a  num 
ber  of  dramas.  It 
is  in  one  of  these, 
"  Clari,  the  Maid  of 
Milan,"  that  "Home, 
Sweet  Home,"  oc 
curs.  SAMUEL 
WOODWORTH  and 
GEORGE  P.  MORRIS 
were  both  editors 
of  New  York  journals.  The  former  is  now  remembered 
only  for  "The  Old  Oaken  Bucket,"  the  latter  for 
"  Woodman,  Spare  that  Tree,"  but  other  lyrics  by  both  were 
once  well  known.  Most  of  the  songs  of  the  early  nineteenth 

1  Those  who  have  access  to  the  poem  should  notice  the  peculiar 
prefatory  note  in  which  Drake  apparently  tries,  without  telling  an 
untruth,  to  give  the  impression  that  he  wrote  the  poem  in  three 
days. 


Joseph  Rodman  Drake. 


112     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

century  were  pathetically  sentimental,  and  had  an  element 
of  mild  moralizing.  In  substance  "  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket  " 
and  "  Home  Sweet  Home  "  are  similar  to  hundreds  of  others. 
These  two  have  survived  partly  because  they  are  better 

poetry,  partly,  perhaps, 
because  they  were  set 
to  taking  music. 

There    is    space    here 
to      mention     but 
more  of  the  many 


one 
New 

York  writers,  JAMES 
KIRKE  PAULDING. 
Paulding  came  to  New 
York  as  a  raw  country 
boy  from  "  up  state," 
and  many  of  his  later 
writings  have  to  do  with 
frontier  life.  His  early 
collaboration  with  Irving 
in  Salmagundi  has  been 
mentioned.  He  wrote 
freely  in  prose  and  verse, 
and  was  especially  fond 
of  satire.  Among  his  writings  are  the  Backwoodsman,  a 
descriptive  poem,  Koningsmarke,  the  Long  Finne,  and  The 
Dutchman's  Fireside,  novels,  and  John  Bull  and  Brother 
Jonathan,  a  political  satire. 


John  H< 


NEW  ENGLAND 

The  Connecticut  Writers.  —  Connecticut  had  now  lost  its 
literary  prestige,  and  was  second  in  importance  not  only 
to  New  York,  but  probably  to  Boston.  The  successors  of 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      113 

the  Hartford  Wits  seem  to  have  inherited  chiefly  the  weak 
ness  of  their  masters.  They  inclined  to  the  sentimental  and 
the  didactic,  and  they  cared  more  for  volume  and  rapidity 
of  writing  than  for  finished  production. 

One  of  the  most  typical  of  these  writers  was  LYDIA 
HUNTLEY  SIGOURNEY.  Her  poems  are  moral  and  tearfully 
sentimental,  and  her  fluency  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that 
she  had  a  hand  in  the  composition  of  forty-six  volumes  and 
contributed  to  periodicals  more  than  two  thousand  pieces  in 
prose  and  verse.  It  is  hard  to  imagine  anything  more  com 
monplace  than  her  work,  but  it  suited  the  taste  of  the  time, 
and  she  had  thousands  of  readers,  not  all,  by  any  means,  of 
the  uncultured  class. 

JAMES  GATES  PERCIVAL  was  a  far  abler  writer.  During 
his  lifetime  he  was  often  seriously  mentioned  among  the 
greater  American  poets,  but  certain  defects  in  his  work  have 
doomed  him  to  a  later  oblivion  that  he  does  not  quite  deserve. 
He  was  born  in  Connecticut  in  1795,  was  educated  at  Yale, 
and  had  a  career  that  shows  his  great  versatility.  He  was 
successively  law  student,  lecturer,  doctor,  professor  of  chem 
istry  at  West  Point,  philologist  on  the  editorial  staff  of 
Webster's  Dictionary,  and  state  geologist  of  Connecticut 
and  of  Wisconsin.  He  was  an  accomplished  linguist,  versed 
both  in  the  classics  and  in  modern  literatures.  Still,  as  a 
poet  he  was  one  of  the  extreme  devotees  of  the  theory  that 
a  poem  should  come  by  inspiration,  not,  like  a  statue  or  a 
picture,  by  study  and  patient  labor.  He  refused  to  revise 
his  own  poems.  The  result  is  that  his  works  are  a  mass  of 
verse,  often  imitative  and  full  of  crude  faults,  though  con 
taining  here  and  there  bits  of  the  truest  poetry. 

Among  Connecticut  writers  was  also  SAMUEL  G.  GOOD 
RICH,  publisher,  editor!  and  originator  of  the  Peter  Parley 
stories.  The  latter  are  an  interesting  expression  of  the 


114     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

common  feeling  that  no  book  was  worth  while  unless  it  had 
an  immediate  practical  purpose.  They  aimed  to  teach  by 
interweaving  facts  in  a  fictitious  narrative.  Each  volume 
recorded  some  rather  tame  adventures  of  some  imaginary 
people,  and  introduced  much  information  regarding  history, 
geography,  science,  etc.1  Seventy-five  years  ago  probably 

most  boys  and  girls  in  the 
northern  United  States 
read  some  of  these  books. 
It  would  be  interesting 
to  know  what  they  really 
thought  of  them.  A  gen 
eration  familiar  with 
more  exciting  stories  finds 
them  wholly  flat  and  un 
interesting,  and  prefers  to 
take  its  facts  and  its  fic 
tion  separately. 
Massachusetts  Writers. 
-  In  Boston,  though  lit 
tle  was  written  that 
takes  high  rank,  forces 
were  at  work  which  had 
important  results  in  the 

William  Ellery  Charming.  ..  ,          ,—,, 

succeeding  period.       Ine 

old-time  Calvinism  was  largely  superseded  by  Unitarianism, 
and  Harvard  College  and  most  of  the  older  churches  passed 
into  the  control  of  the  more  liberal  sect.  This  change  was 

1  Sample  titles  are :  Peter  Parley's  Tales  about  the  Sun,  Moon, 
and  Stars;  Peter  Parley's  Tales  about  Great  Britain;  Parley's  Tales 
about  Ancient  Rome.  Goodrich  himself  was  the  author  of  the  first 
books  in  the  series,  but  afterward  he  hired  others  to  write  volumes 
in  the  same  style.  All  were  published  as  by  Peter  Parley.  Haw 
thorne  wrote  one  volume. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER   WRITERS      115 


accompanied  by  .many  heartburnings  and  much  discussion. 
At  first  it  drew  into  religious  controversy  men  who  might 
better  have  written  on  other  subjects,  but  later  the  greater 
freedom  probably  had  a  good  effect  on  literature.  Before 
the  end  of  the  period  there  were  some  beginnings  of  the  moral 
agitation  against  slavery  which  had  so  strong  an  effect  on 
the  writings  of  the  suc 
ceeding  years.  In  the 
early  part  of  the  cen 
tury  the  Anthology 
Club,1  an  association  of 
young  men  of  literary 
instincts,  did  much  for 
literature,  and  was  con 
cerned  with  the  estab 
lishment  in  1815  of  the 
Xorth  American  Rertr/r, 
one  of  the  most  im 
portant  of  American 
journals. 

One  of  the  ablest 
members  of  the  An 
thology  Club  was 
WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHAX- 
xi  \<;,  who  began  his 
career  by  writing  literary  essays,  but  who  became  the 
leader  of  the  Unitarian  movement  and  devoted  himself 
mostly  to  religious  discussions.  This  fact  has  tended  to 

1  Among  the  members  of  the  Anthology  Club  were  John  Quinry 
Adams,  afterwards  President  of  the  United  States,  and  at  one  time 
professor  of  belles  letlres  in  Harvard  ;  Joseph  Story,  the  noted  lawyer 
and  jurist ;  Edward  Everett  and  George  Ticknor,  whose  service 
in  introducing  German  educational  methods  has  been  mentioned. 


Richard  Henry  Dana. 


116    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


restrict  his  readers  to  members  of  his  own  sect,  and  the 
charm  of  his  prose  is  not  so  generally  known  as  it  should  be. 
A  more  versatile  writer  was  RICHARD  HENRY  DANA/  who 
attempted  essays,  stories,  and,  somewhat  late  in  life,  poems. 
Dana  had  much  ability,  but  he  was  erratic,  and  too  much 
inclined  to  disregard  accepted  standards  of  criticism.2 

The  Revolutionary  group  of  women  writers  in  Boston  was 

succeeded  by  several  authors  of 
sentimental  poems  and  tales. 
MRS.  LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD,  who 
was  later  known  for  her  activ 
ities  in  the  antislavery  move 
ment,  began  her  career  with 
two  historical  novels,  the  first, 
Hobomok,  published  in  1824, 
when  she  was  twenty-one  years 
of  age.  Miss  CATHERINE  M. 
SEDGWICK  hardly  belongs  to  the 
same  group,  since  her  home  was 
in  western  Massachusetts.  Her 
tendency  toward  moral  and  intel 
lectual  didacticism  may  be  in 
ferred  from  the  fact  that  for  fifty  years  she  was  preceptress 
of  a  school  for  young  ladies.  Her  novels  are,  however,  far 
superior  to  the  ordinary  goody-goody  stories  of  the  time. 
The  Linwoods,  an  historical  tale  of  the  Revolution,  is  prob 
ably  her  best. 

Massachusetts  was  the  home  of  several  orators  of  na- 

1  Not  to  be  confused  with  his  son,  the  author  of  Two  Years  Before 
the  Mast.     See.  the  next  chapter. 

2  Among  Dana's  most  interesting  writings  are  two  weirdly  im 
aginative   stories,    "Paul   Felton"   and    "Tom   Thornton,"   and  a 
strange  narrative  poem,  "The  Buccaneer,"  in  which  a  ghostly  horse 
appears  to  punish  a  pirate  for  his  cruelty. 


Daniel  Webster. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      117 

tional  fame.  The  greatest  was  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  who, 
though  born  in  New  Hampshire  and  graduated  from  Dart 
mouth  College,  was  long  associated  with  Boston.  Webster 


Edward  Everett. 

lived  well  into  the  next  period,  but  many  of  his  most 
famous  orations  were  delivered  before  1833.  In  his  occa 
sional  addresses,  his  speeches  in  Congress,  and  his  pleas  at  the 
bar  Webster  was  distinguished  by  a  dignified  and  ponderous 
manner,  which  seemed  especially  impressive  when  he  in- 


118    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

dulged  in  occasional  outbursts  of  feeling.  He  was  a  direct 
follower  of  the  weightier  orators  of  the  Revolutionary  time, 
and  he  had  a  personality  and  a  physique  that  fitted  well  with 
the  weighty  manner.  EDWARD  EVERETT  was  also  an  orator 
of  the  old  school,  but  as  was  natural  in  a  lifelong  student  of 
the  classics,  his  style  was  more  formal,  and  it  was  sometimes 
over-adorned.  Occasionally  he  suggests  Burke.  The  speeches 
of  Webster  and  Everett  are  examples  of  the  older  American 
oratory  at  its  best,  and  as  such  they  are  American  classics, 
though  later  tendencies  are  toward  a  simpler  style  of  public- 
speaking.1 

Other  New  England  Writers.  —  New  England  writers 
outside  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  were  relatively  un 
important.  JOHN  XEAL,  of  Maine,  was  an  amusing  charac 
ter,  to  whom  it  is  hard  to  deny  a  certain  amount  of  genius. 
He  published  novels,  poems,  and  literary  criticisms.  The 
novels,  though  formless  and  bombastic,  probably  give  the 
best  evidence  of  his  ability.2  Among  the  most  important 
of  these  are  Logan  and  Seventy-six,  the  latter  a  story  of 
the  Revolutionary  war. 

1  Webster's  four  most  famous  orations  are  his  address  at  the  lay 
ing  of  the  cornerstone  of  the  Bunker  Hill  monument,  his  oration  on 
Adams  and  Jefferson,  his  reply  to  Hayne  in  the  United  States  Senate 
(1830),  and  the  "Seventh  of  March  speech"  (1850).     Others,  how 
ever,  show  his  style  almost  equally  well.    Representative  speeches  of 
Everett  are  "The  Circumstances  favorable  to  the  progress  of  litera 
ture  in  America,"  "Adams  and  Jefferson,"  and  a  Fourth  of  July 
address  delivered  at  Dorchester  in  1855. 

2  Neal's  most  remarkable  characteristic  was  his  self-assurance. 
He  went  to  England,  where  he  seems  to  have  secured  a  place  among 
literary  men  simply  by  assuming  that  he  belonged  there.     In  an 
article  in  Blackwoods  he  discusses  his  own  poems,  points  out  their 
faults,  and  concludes;    "Yet,  nevertheless,  containing  altogether 
more  sincere  poetry,  more  exalted,  original,  pure  poetry,  than  all 
the  works  of  all  the  other  authors  that  have   ever    appeared  in 
America."     He  also  shared  the  American  belief  that  hasty  composi 
tion  was  commendable,  and  boasted  of  the  speed  at  which  he  wrote. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS   11.9 


PHILADELPHIA 

General  Conditions.  —  During  much  of  the  time  since  the 
death  of  Franklin  Philadelphia  has  supported  creditable 
periodicals,  and  has  given  other  evidences  of  much  intellec 
tual  culture,  but  has  had  few  writers  of  great  distinction. 
This  was  the  case  during  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Though  the  city  was  a  literary  center,  with  es 
pecially  strong  influences  on  the  South  and  the  West,  it  has 
left  few  names  that  need  to  be  remembered.  JOSEPH 
DENNIE,  a  New  Englander  by  birth  and  education,  came  to 
Philadelphia  and  conducted  from  1801  to  1812  the  Port 
folio.  His  pen  name  was  "  Oliver  Oldschool,"  and  he  af 
fected  the  formal  manner  of  the  eighteenth-century  writers. 
His  most  popular  work  was  a  series  of  essays  known  as  The 
Lay  Preacher.  CHARLES  JAUED  INGERSOLL  was  the  author 
of  the  Inchiquin  Letters.  These  purported  to  be  written  by 
a  Jesuit  in  Washington,  and  were  intended  to  offset  the  effect 
of  many  unfavorable  letters  published  by  European  travelers 
in  America.  They  were  the  occasion  of  much  controversy, 
though  at  a  time  when  international  feeling  was  less  acute 
they  would  probably  have  attracted  little  attention. 

THE  SOUTH 

General  Conditions.  —  The  South  was  still  prominent 
in  public  afl'airs,  and  Southern  statesmen  maintained  a  high 
standard  of  oratory,  though  none  of  them  quite  equaled 
Webster.  Among  those  best  remembered  in  history  are 
HENRY  CLAY,  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN,  and  the  picturesque 
JOHN  RANDOLPH  of  Roanoke.  The  South  also  contributed 
its  share  of  the  new  biography  and  history  already  mentioned 


120     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


as  a  product  of  the  time.  WILLIAM  WiRT,1  of  Virginia,  wrote 
a  life  of  Patrick  Henry  which  is  still  almost  a  classic  of  popu 
lar  biography.  CHIEF  JUSTICE  MARSHALL,  another  Vir 
ginian,  wrote  the  authorized  life  of  Washington,  a  thorough 
and  conscientious  work  in  five  volumes.  MASON  L.  WEEMS, 
a  Virginia  preacher  and  book  agent,  also  wrote  a  brief  biog 
raphy  of  Washington,  in  which  he  apparently  tried  to  tell, 

__^      not  the  facts,  but  the 

things  that  would  make 
the  book  sell.  It  is  to 
Weems's  fertile  imagi 
nation  that  we  owe  the 
story  of  the  cherry  tree 
and  the  little  hatchet, 
and  other  picturesque 
but  wholly  unauthen- 
ticated  anecdotes  of 
Washington. 

In  other  forms  of  lit 
erature  most  South 
erners  worked  rather 


John  C.  Calhoun. 


for      their      own 

ment  than  with  a  more 

serious  purpose.  JOHN  PENDLETON  KENNEDY,  a  Mary 
land  lawyer,  wrote  SicaHoiv  Barn,  a  series  of  sketches  of 
Southern  life,  and  two  historical  novels,  Horseshoe  Robinson 

1  Wirt  also  wrote  the  Letters  of  a  British  Spy,  which  like  the  Inchi- 
quin  Letters  purported  to  come  from  a  foreigner  in  America.  They 
were  less  calculated  to  stir  up  controversy  than  were  Ingersoll's 
work,  many  of  them  being  in  reality  essays  on  subjects  in  which 
Wirt  was  interested.  So  long  as  the  formal  prose  of  the  Addisonian 
school  was  in  vogue,  they  were  looked  on  as  models  of  style,  and 
every  American  book  of  selections  contained  "The  Blind  Preacher" 
and  other  extracts. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      121 

and  Rob  of  the  Bowl.  These  are  excellently  done,  with  life, 
action,  and  picturesque  description,  though  occasionally  they 
seem  the  work  of  an  amateur  in  letters.  EDWARD  COATE 
PINKNEY,  of  Maryland,  wrote  spirited  poems  in  the  manner 
of  Byron  and  Moore.  RICHARD  HENRY  WILDE,  who  came 
from  Ireland  to  Georgia  in  his  boyhood,  wrote  poems,  mostly 
forgotten  except  one  song,  "  My  Life  is  like  the  Summer 
Rose."  FRANCIS  SCOTT  KEY,  of  Maryland,  is  remembered 
only  as  the  author  of  the  "  Star-Spangled  Banner." 

THE  WEST 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  America  the  region  west 
of  the  Alleghanies  began  to  make  itself  felt  in  literature.1 
At  first  the  settlers  in  the  Ohio  valley  could  communicate 
with  the  seaboard  only  over  steep  and  difficult  mountain 
roads.  Since  it  was  so  hard  to  import  reading  matter,  am 
bitious  Westerners  determined  to  produce  their  own.  News 
papers,  magazines,  and  books  were  early  published  at  Lexing 
ton,  Kentucky  and  Cincinnati,  Ohio  and  later  in  other 
towns.  The  early  Western  writers  had  been  born  and  edu 
cated  in  the  Eastern  states,  but  most  of  them  had  absorbed 
the  spirit  of  the  new  country,  with  its  broad  interests  and  its 
free,  humorous  outlook  on  life.  The  importance  of  these 
men  comes  not  from  the  intrinsic  value  of  anything  they  wrote 
but  from  the  fact  that  they  introduced  a  new  element  into 
American  literature.2 

1  Brackenridge  (see  p.  67)  began  to  write  in  the  earlier  period, 
but  there  was  no  considerable  group  of  writers  before  1800. 

2  The  two  most  notable  Western  writers  of  this  time  were  Timothy 
Flint  and  James  Hall.     Flint,  a  native  of  Massachusetts  who  spent 
some  time  in  Cincinnati,  wrote  two  historical  romances  and  many 
essays.      I  fall,  who  got  rather  more  fully  into  the  spirit  of  the  West, 
was  born  in  Philadelphia  and  lived  in  Illinois  and  in  Ohio.     Besides 
descriptions  of  Western  life  and  scenes  he  wrote  poems  and  tales. 


122  AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

GENERAL  SUMMARY 

Many  of  the  general  characteristics  of  this  period  were 
noticed  in  the  introduction  to  the  present  chapter,  and  need 
not  be  repeated  here.  The  most  conspicuous  fact  was  the 
production  of  a  body  of  literature  sufficiently  important  to 
command  recognition  abroad,  and  to  give  Americans  them 
selves  real  reason  for  satisfaction.  Equally  important  were 
the  changes  in  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the  time.  Over- 
ambitious  and  misdirected  patriotism  were  still  shown  in 
some  of  the  magazine  ventures,  and  in  some  literary  criti 
cism,  but  on  the  whole  the  attitude  toward  the  question  of  a 
national  literature  was  far  saner  than  in  the  later  Revolu 
tionary  period.  American  authors  gradually  escaped  from 
the  absolute  domination  of  the  formal  eighteenth-century 
writers  without  following  the  extremists  of  the  new  school 
in  England.  In  the  more  important  writings,  especially 
those  of  Irving  and  Cooper,  there  was  less  didacticism  than 
formerly,  though  the  Peter  Parley  books  and  many  moraliz 
ing  writings  in  prose  and  verse  give  evidence  how  many  per 
sons  still  held  the  strictest  ideas  of  the  relation  between  litera 
ture  and  life.  The  most  unfortunate  characteristic  of  popular 
taste  was  a  fondness  for  the  sentimentally  commonplace, 
which  America  shared  at  this  time  with  England  and  the 
Continent.  This  was,  however,  a  passing  affectation  which 
left  few  serious  results. 

New  York  became  the  literary  center  of  the  country,  but 
the  New  York  writers  were  not  a  school  developed  within  the 
city  itself,  but  were  attracted  from  different  places  by  the 
advantages  offered  by  the  metropolis.  The  Knickerbocker 
group  was  representative,  therefore,  not  only  of  New  York 
city,  but  of  the  more  energetic  and  cosmopolitan  spirit  of 
the  entire  North.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  three  greater 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS     123 

men,  Irving,  Cooper,  and  Bryant,  were  distinguished  each  in  a 
different  department  of  letters. 

New  England,  which  had  led  in  the  literature  of  the  earlier 
time,  and  which  was  to  lead  even  more  conspicuously  in  the 
next  half  century,  was  passing  through  a  period  of  change. 
Before  1833  Puritanism  had  lost  its  hold,  though  its  influence 
still  remained.  There  was  greater  freedom,  not  only  in  reli 
gion,  but  in  all  fields  of  thought.  New  ideas  of  education 
were  coming  in,  and  men  were  discovering  new  interests  and 
entering  regions  of  knowledge  of  which  their  grandfathers 
had  never  heard,  or  into  which  they  were  afraid  to  venture. 
For  the  time  being,  however,  the  literary  output  of  the  region 
was  relatively  unimportant. 

Philadelphia  produced  no  great  writers,  though  it  was  the 
center  of  important  literary  interests.  In  the  South  condi 
tions  changed  less  than  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  The 
Southern  gentleman  clung  exclusively  to  his  Addison  and  his 
Pope  long  after  his  Northern  contemporaries  were  reading 
Wordsworth  and  Shelley,  and  he  still  declined  to  enter 
literature  as  a  serious  profession.  The  settlements  \vest 
of  the  Alleghanies  introduced  a  new  element  into  American 
life,  and  into  American  literature  as  well,  though  as  might  be 
expected,  no  great  classics  were  produced  in  the  new  country. 

All  in  all,  the  period  of  the  Knickerbocker  writers  handed 
on  the  legacy  which  it  had  received,  greatly  augmented  and 
changed  for  the  better  in  almost  every  way.  America  was 
now  ready  to  express  herself  in  literature  as  never  before. 

READINGS  AND  TOPICS 

General  Suggestions.  —  Though  literature  in  the  Knickerbocker 
period  is  less  closely  associated  with  political  events  than  in  the 
earlier  time,  the  student  should  keep  in  mind  the  general  course  of 
American  history.  He  should  also  always  remember  the  contempo- 


124    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

rary  relations  of  English  and  American  literature.  Discussions  of  the 
literature  of  the  period  may  be  found  in  Cairns,  A  History  of  American 
Literature,  Chap.  Ill;  Wendell,  A  Literary  History  of  America,  pp. 
157-203  ;  Trent,  A  History  of  American  Literature,  pp.  187-284.  See 
the  indexes  of  these  volumes  for  discussions  of  particular  authors. 
In  the  study  of  this  and  succeeding  periods  it  will  be  profitable  to 
confine  attention  mostly  to  the  chief  authors,  and  to  read  the  litera 
ture  itself  rather  than  biography  and  criticism.  The  best  biographies 
are  mentioned,  however,  that  they  may  be  used  for  reference  and 
in  the  preparation  of  special  topics.  Biographical  sketches  of  the 
lesser  writers  may  be  found  in  Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of  American 
Biography,  Lamb's  Biographical  Dictionary  of  the  United  States, 
and  similar  works  of  reference.  Selections  from  all  are  given  in 
Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  A  Library  of  American  Literature,  and 
from  all  the  poets  in  Stedman's  American  Anthology.  Many  of 
the  poets  are  also  represented  in  Bronson,  American  Poems. 

NEW  YORK 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  — -  The  standard  life  of  WASHINGTON 
IRVING  is  that  by  Pierre  M.  Irving  in  four  volumes.  The  best 
briefer  biography  is  that  by  Charles  Dudley  Warner  in  the  Ameri 
can  Men  of  Letters  Series.  The  student  should  aim  to  gain  ac 
quaintance  with  Knickerbocker's  History  of  New  York,  the  Sketch 
Book,  and  the  Alhambra,  and  if  possible  with  the  Tales  of  a 
Traveller,  Bracebridge  Hall,  and  the  Conquest  of  Granada.  It  is 
impossible  to  name  the  best  selections  from  each,  but  the  follow 
ing  list  of  suggestions  may  be  helpful.  From  Knickerbocker's 
History,  Book  I,  Chap.  I,  Book  II,  Chap.  I,  and  Book  III ;  from 
the  Sketch  Book,  "The  Voyage,"  "Rip  Van  Winkle,"  "The  Country 
Church,"  "The  Widow  and  her  Son,"  "The  Spectre  Bridegroom," 
"Westminster  Abbey,"  "Christmas,"  "Stratford  on  Avon,"  "John 
Bull,"  "The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow"  ;  from  the  Alhambra,  "The 
Journey, "  "  Palace  of  the  Alhambra, "  "  The  Inhabitants  of  the  Alham 
bra,"  "The  Adventure  of  the  Mason,"  "Legend  of  the  Arabian 
Astrologer,"  "Legend  of  Prince  Ahmed,"  "Legend  of  the  Moor's 
Legacy,"  "Governor  Manco  and  the  Soldier";  from  the  Tales 
of  a  Traveller,  "The  Adventure  of  My  Aunt,"  "The  Bold 
Dragoon,"  "The  Adventure  of  the  German  Student,"  "A  Literary 
Dinner,"  "Wolfert  Webber";  from  Bracebridge  Hall,  "The  Hall," 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  WRITERS      125 

"Family  Servants,"  "The  Stout  Gentleman,"  "Saint  Mark's 
Eve,"  "The  Student  of  Salamanca,"  "Gypsies,"  "May-Day," 
"Popular  Superstitions";  from  the  Conquest  of  Granada,  Chaps. 
I,  IV,  XXV,  XLII,  LIX,  XCIII,  XCIX. 

The  best  life  of  COOPER  is  that  by  Professor  Thomas  R.  Louns- 
bury.  A  later  biography  by  Mary  E.  Phillips  is  in  some  ways 
attractive.  Brief  selections  from  Cooper  are  of  little  use.  Read 
complete  romances.  It  is  desirable  to  have  representatives  of 
each  class  —  historical  novels,  sea  tales,  and  Leatherstocking 
tales  —  and  those  who  have  already  read  some  of  Cooper's  works 
should  choose  others  of  a  sort  with  which  they  are  not  familiar. 
The  Spy  and  the  Pilot  are  the  best  of  their  respective  classes. 
Many  critics  rank  the  Last  of  the  Mohicans  first  among  the  Leather- 
stocking  Tales.  The  Pioneers  is  interesting  because  it  shows  how 
Cooper  began  the  series,  and  portrays  frontier  life  as  he  himself 
saw  it  when  a  boy. 

The  authorized  life  of  BRYANT  is  that  by  Godwin ;  the  briefer 
biography  by  Biglow  is  good.  The  following  suggested  list  con 
tains  representatives  of  different  classes  of  Bryant's  poems : 
"  Thanatopsis,"  "The  Yellow  Violet,"  "To  a  Waterfowl,"  "The 
Ages,"  "March,"  "Hymn  to  the  North  Star,"  "A  Forest  Hymn," 
"June,"  "The  African  Chief,"  "The  Death  of  the  Flowers,"  "The 
Past,"  "The  Evening  Wind,"  "To  the  Fringed  Gentian,"  "Song 
of  Marion's  Men,"  "Seventy-Six,"  "The  Battlefield,"  "The 
Crowded  Street,"  "The  White-Footed  Deer,"  "The  Planting  of 
the  Apple-Tree,"  "The  Snow-Shower,"  "Robert  of  Lincoln," 
"Waiting  by  the  Gate,"  "The  Little  People  of  the  Snow,"  "Abra 
ham  Lincoln,"  "The  Flood  of  Years." 

So  far  as  time  permits  of  readings  from  lesser  New  York  authors 
selections  may  be  made  from  the  following  list :  From  Halleck, 
"Marco  Bozzaris,"  "On  the  Death  of  J.  R.  Drake,"  "Alnwick 
Castle,"  "Connecticut";  from  Drake,  "The  Culprit  Fay,"  "The 
American  Flag"  ;  from  Payne,  "Home,  Sweet  Home"  ;  from  Wood- 
worth,  "The  Bucket";  from  Morris,  "Woodman,  Spare  that 
Tree" ;  from  Paulding,  "John  Bull  and  Brother  Jonathan,"  or  any 
available  selections. 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  Biographical  sketches  of 
the  chief  writers  may  profitably  be  presented  to  the  class.  (For 
references  see  the  biographies  mentioned  above.)  The  life  of 


126     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

John  Howard  Payne,  and  the  literary  friendship  of  Halleck  and 
Drake  are  picturesque,  though  less  important.  The  "Washington 
Irving  Region"  on  the  Hudson  combines  picturesqueness  with 
literary  and  historical  associations,  and  may  be  made  the  subject 
of  an  interesting  topic,  especially  if  pictures  are  available  for  illus 
tration.  (See  Johnson,  The  Picturesque  Hudson,  Hubbard,  Little 
Journeys  to  the  Homes  of  American  Authors,  pp.  265-296,  Mabie, 
Backgrounds  of  Literature,  pp.  98-131 ;  New  England  Magazine,  23  : 
449-469,  and  many  other  easily  available  references.)  Many 
topics  based  on  Irving's  writings  will  suggest  themselves,  e.g. : 
What  kinds  of  subjects  did  Irving  prefer,  and  why?  Irving's 
fondness  for  the  old  and  the  old-fashioned  (Find  evidence  in  his 
choice  of  subjects,  in  the  quotations  that  he  uses,  etc.)  ;  Irving's 
treatment  of  the  supernatural  in  his  stories  (How  seriously  does 
he  take  his  ghosts  ?  Does  he  make  the  most  of  his  ghost  stories  ? 
Can  you  find  a  way  of  telling  "The  Spectre  Bridegroom"  that  will 
make  more  of  the  suggestion  of  the  supernatural  ?  etc.  This  topic 
to  be  followed  by  similar  papers  on  Hawthorne  and  Poe,  and  com 
parisons  made) ;  A  comparison  between  the  Roger  de  Coverley 
Papers  and  selected  papers  from  the  Sketch  Book  and  Bracebridge  Hall; 
A  comparison  between  the  Sketch  Book  and  some  of  Goldsmith's 
essays;  The  Alhambra  (the  building)  and  Irving's  Alhambra. 

Among  possible  topics  on  Cooper  are :  The  life  history  and 
character  of  Natty  Bumpo  as  seen  in  the  Leatherstocking  Tales  ; 
Cooper's  Indians;  The  character  of  Harvey  Birch  ;  The  Pilot  and 
the  real  Paul  Jones;  The  women  in  Cooper's  tales  (for  Cooper's 
use  of  the  word  "female"  see  an  article  by  Professor  Lounsbury  in 
Harper's  Magazine,  113:362);  Cooper's  use  of  setting;  or  a  de 
tailed  study  of  the  setting  of  one  of  the  romances,  e.g.,  The  Last 
of  the  Mohicans. 

Suggested  topics  on  Bryant:  The  choice  of  subjects  in  Bryant's 
poems  on  nature  (compared  if  desired  with  that  of  Wordsworth, 
or  Whittier)  ;  Bryant's  fondness  for  autumn  and  winter  (illustrate 
by  reference  to  as  many  poems  as  possible)  ;  Bryant's  poems  on 
death  (compared,  if  desired,  with  the  usual  treatment  of  the  same 
theme  in  poetry,  e.g.,  in  ordinary  hymns) ;  The  religious  ideas  ex 
pressed  in  "  Thanatopsis "  (supplement  this  by  finding  other  poems 
that  show  just  what  the  author's  faith  was,  and  see  what  his  biog 
raphers  say  on  the  subject) ;  The  moral  lessons  in  Bryant's 
poetry  (pick  out  definitely  expressed  morals); 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  KNICKERBOCKER   WRITERS      127 

Those  especially  interested  will  readily  find  topics  on  the  lesser 
writers,  e.g. :  An  analysis  of  Drake's  "Culprit  Fay"  ;  The  sentimental 
songs  of  New  York  (see  references  on  Payne,  Woodworth,  Morris) . 
The  large  number  of  writers  who  were  editors  of  newspapers  and 
magazines  suggests  a  paper  on  Journalism  and  American  Literature 
during  this  period. 

NEW  ENGLAND 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  Most  of  the  New  England  writers 
of  this  period  need  little  attention  from  the  general  student.  Those 
who  wish  may  read  from  Mrs.  Sigourney,  "The  Indian's  Welcome 
to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,"  "Indian  Names,"  "The  Early  Blue  Bird"  ; 
from  Percival,  "To  Seneca  Lake,"  "The  Coral  Grove,"  "Night," 
"It  is  great  for  our  Country  to  Die";  from  Dana,  "The  Little 
Beach  Bird,"  "The  Moss  supplicateth  for  the  Poet,"  "  Paul  Felton." 
A  twentieth-century  boy  or  girl  would  find  it  interesting  to  dip  into 
one  of  the  Peter  Parley  books,  if  one  should  chance  to  be  avail 
able.  Those  who  have  access  to  a  file  of  the  North  American  Re 
view  might  do  well  to  glance  at  one  of  the  early  volumes.  Webster 
should  not  be  slighted.  For  suggestions  regarding  choice  of  ora 
tions  from  Webster  and  Everett  see  footnote,  page  118. 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  An  interesting  study  might 
be  made  of  a  Peter  Parley  book,  compared,  if  desired,  with  the 
juvenile  books  of  to-day.  Webster's  orations  may  be  compared 
with  those  of  the  Revolutionary  orators,  or  with  those  of  the  later 
period,  e.g.,  Lincoln's. 

THE  SOUTH 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  The  student  who  is  especially  in 
terested  in  political  oratory  may  search  out  for  himself  selections 
from  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Randolph.  Others  might  read  from  Wirt, 
"The  Blind  Preacher,"  or  if  time  permits,  the  Life  of  Patrick 
Henry;  from  Kennedy,  selections  from  Swallow  Barn;  from  Pinkney, 
"A  Health,"  "We  break  the  Glass";  from  Wilde,  "My  Life  is 
like  the  Summer  Rose,"  "To  the  Mocking  Bird." 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  A  study  may  be  made  of 
Southern  political  oratory,  compared  if  desired  with  that  of  the 
North ;  of  the  sentimental  songs  of  Pinkney,  Wilde,  and  other 
Southerners,  compared,  perhaps,  with  those  of  Payne,  Morris,  and 
other  Northerners.  A  comparison  might  also  be  made  between 
one  of  Kennedy's  novels  and  one  of  Cooper's. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 

1833-1883  ! 

General  Conditions.  —  The  most  conspicuous  fact  in 
American  history  during  the  central  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  the  dissension  between  North  and  South,  which 
culminated  in  the  Civil  War,  and  eventually  resulted  in  es 
tablishing  the  Union  more  firmly  than  before.  Equally 
important  to  the  student  of  American  thought  were  several 
less  obvious  movements.  The  growing  freedom  of  religious 
belief,  the  teachings  of  science,  and  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
changed  the  whole  view  of  the  meaning  of  life.  New  inven 
tions  and  discoveries,  the  increased  use  of  the  steamboat, 
the  introduction  of  the  railroad  and  the  telegraph  had  their 
effect  on  the  intellectual  habits  of  the  people.  The  develop 
ment  of  the  West  made  the  aggressive  frontier  type  of  man 
a  greater  power  in  American  affairs  than  he  had  been  since 
the  early  colonial  days.2  All  these  movements  were  reflected 

1  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  the  student  again  that  these 
dates  marking  off  a  period  of  fifty  years  are  given  only  for  conven 
ience.     As  is  usual  in  literary  history  no  definite  events  separate 
this  period  from  the  preceding  and  the  following. 

2  All  of  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States  before  1829  were  men 
whose  families  had  been  of  social  importance,  and  who  had  the  best 
available  educational  opportunities.     From  the  accession  of  Jackson 
in  1829  until  after  the  Civil  War,  they  were  mostly  self-made  men 
who  had  no  special  advantages  of  family  or  position.     Several  of 
them  had  no  higher  educational  training,  and  most  of  the  others 
attended  small  local  colleges. 

128 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         129 

in  the  literature  of  the  period,  and  although  their  influence 
cannot  be  traced  in  detail,  they  should  be  kept  in  mind 
throughout  the  study  of  the  present  chapter. 

Early  in  the  period  the  lead  in  literature  returned  from 
Xew  York  to  Massachusetts,  and  although  there  were  many 
important  writers  in  other  sections  of  the  country,  among 
them  the  two  who  have  perhaps  attracted  the  greatest 
notice  abroad,  it  was  the  Massachusetts  writers  who  were 
most  highly  regarded  by  their  contemporaries,  and  it  was  they 
who  really  best  expressed  American  life.  For  this  reason 
they  will  be  considered  first  in  this  chapter. 

Conditions  in  New  England.  —  The  period  from  1833  to  the 
beginning  of  the  Civil  War  was  in  many  ways  the  golden  age 
of  Xew  England.  Boston  had  recovered  from  the  business 
depression  of  the  earlier  period  without,  however,  becoming 
so  prosperous  that  the  commercial  overbalanced  the  intel 
lectual  life.  While  Xew  England  was  thoroughly  democratic 
in  spirit,  there  were  acknowledged  social  distinctions,  deter 
mined  in  part  by  family,  to  some  extent  no  doubt  by  well- 
earned  wealth,  and  largely  by  intellectual  and  personal 
worth.  The  existence  of  a  recognized  group  of  the  "  best 
people  "  tended,  as  it  always  does,  to  establish  standards  of 
conduct  and  thinking,  and  to  give  stability  to  all  the  in 
stitutions  of  society.  On  the  other  hand  the  lines  between 
classes  were  not  so  arbitrarily  drawn  as  to  cause  much  unpleas 
ant  feeling.  As  yet  few  foreign  immigrants  had  corne  to  this 
region,1  and  the  Xew  Englanders  were  both  in  blood  and  in 
thought  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans.2  Boston  and  the 

1  The  poorer  class  of  Irish  were  employed  in  building  railroads 
and  doing  similar  work.     Many  passages  in  the  writings  of  Haw 
thorne,  Thoreau,  and  others  show  that  they  were  not  regarded  as 
possible  members  of  the  community,  but  as  curiosities,  as  Orientals 
are  in  some  places  to-day. 

2  Emerson,     Hawthorne,     Longfellow,    Whittier,     Holmes,    and 


130     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

surrounding  towns  were  sufficiently  old  and  had  a  sufficiently 
definite  tradition  to  escape  the  rawness  which  still  clings  to 
some  Western  cities  where  conditions  are  otherwise  admir 
able;  yet  life  was  in  general  very  simple.  Bostonians  were 
notoriously  self-satisfied,  but  the  fact  that  they  themselves 
recognized  this  weakness  and  laughed  over  it  shows  that 
their  conceit  was  harmless.1  Cambridge,  now  virtually  a 
part  of  Boston,  was  a  quiet  college  town  —  if  a  college  town 
is  ever  quiet  —  and  Concord  a  peaceful  country  village  cher 
ishing  its  Revolutionary  traditions.  The  acres  of  Lowell 
in  the  one  and  of  Emerson  in  the  other  were  almost  sur 
rounded  by  farms,  yet  both  lived  near  the  centers  of  village 
life.  While  the  trolley,  which  now  enables  the  tourist  to 
"  do  "  both  places  in  a  scant  half-day,  was  undreamed  of, 
yet  even  Concord  was  near  enough  to  Boston  to  make  pos 
sible  frequent  visits,  and  close  acquaintanceship  between 
Boston  and  Concord  literary  men.  Everywhere  was  the 
thrift,  the  simple  living,  the  idealism  which  had  come  down 
from  earlier  times. 

By  this  time  the  New  Englanders  had  escaped  from  the 
theological  narrowness  of  their  ancestors;  most  of  their 
churches  had  become  Unitarian,  and  the  others  were  more 

Lowell,  as  well  as  many  of  their  lesser  literary  contemporaries,  could 
trace  their  ancestry  back  to  the  early  settlers  of  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  Bay.  All  those  named  were  born  within  the  limits 
of  what  was  then  Massachusetts,  all  but  Longfellow  within  twenty- 
five  miles  of  Boston,  and  all  but  Lowell  in  the  years  1803-1809,  in 
clusive.  All  lived  most  of  their  lives  within  easy  reach  of  Boston, 
and  their  literary  associations  were  almost  wholly  with  that  city. 
Several  of  them  were  close  friends,  and  all  of  them  were  pleasant 
acquaintances,  meeting  often  at  the  famous  Saturday  Club  and 
elsewhere. 

1  Dr.  Holmes,  the  most  Bostonian  of  the  Bostonians,  says  in  the 
Autocrat:  " Boston  State-House  is  the  hub  of  the  solar  system.  You 
couldn't  pry  that  out  of  a  Boston  man,  if  you  had  the  tire  of  all 
creation  straightened  out  for  a  crowbar." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         131 

liberal  than  formerly.  During  the  early  years  of  this  period 
they  experienced  an  intellectual  awakening  which  Professor 
Wendell  has  very  happily  called  the  Renaissance  of  New 
England.  They  read  widely  and  eagerly,  not  only  in  all  de 
partments  of  English  literature,  but  in  the  literatures  of  other 
countries.  They  grew  interested  in  music  and  the  other  arts. 
They  responded,  especially,  to  the  teachings  of  the  German 
thinkers,  whose  works  had  been  made  available  by  the  group 
of  students  who  were  introducing  German  scholarship  at 
Harvard.  These  new  ideas  were  not  confined  to  the  more 
cultured  part  of  the  community,  but  were  disseminated 
among  the  people  through  the  pulpit,  the  lyceum  lecture,1 
and  the  magazines.  Of  the  latter,  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
established  in  1857  with  Lowell  as  editor  and  all  the  more 
prominent  New  England  men  of  letters  as  contributors,  was 
one  of  the  great  forces  in  American  literature. 

In  a  time  of  great  earnestness,  when  important  problems 
came  before  the  nation  for  solution,  it  was  perhaps  natural 

1  The  lyceum,  which  developed  during  the  early  years  of  the 
period  under  discussion,  was  a  great  educational  force  in  New  Eng 
land,  and  wherever  else  in  the  North  popular  education  and  breadth 
of  interests  were  general.  A  lyceum  was  a  local  literary  society, 
perhaps  meeting  in  a  village  hall  or  country  schoolhouse,  and  in 
cluding  all  members  of  the  community  who  wished  to  attend  — 
the  minister,  the  school  teacher,  the  local  doctor  and  lawyer,  and  a 
variety  of  persons,  young  and  old,  from  less  distinctly  intellectual 
callings.  The  regular  meetings  Avere  conducted  by  the  members, 
and  consisted  of  delta  Irs,  essays,  papers,  declamations,  etc.  At 
frequent  intervals,  however,  the  society  listened  to  lectures  by 
speakers  of  repute.  Kmerson,  Holmes,  Thoreau,  Lowell,  and  other 
writers,  many  ministers,  and  some  of  the  most  prominent  men  in 
political  life  made  a  practice  of  lecturing  before  lyceums.  The  word 
"lyceum"  is  still  retained  in  connection  with  popular  lectures  and 
lecture  agencies;  but  the  real  lyceum,  \vi1li  its  intellectual  contact 
between  persons  of  widely  uifTerent  position  and  training,  and  the 
feeling  of  close  relationship  between  the  members  and  the  noted 
speakers  a<l<ln  >siriLr  1  hern,  is  almost  wholly  a  thing  of  the  past. 


132     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

that  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans  should  come  to  the 
front.  Two  great  movements  developed  in  connection  with 
the  intellectual  awakening  of  New  England  —  the  tran 
scendental  movement,  which  was  concerned  with  questions 
of  theology  and  philosophy,  and  the  antislavery  movement, 
which  was  concerned  with  both  ethics  and  politics.  One 
group  of  writers  devoted  its  energies  largely  to  the  former, 
another  to  the  latter,  and  a  third,  while  interested  in  both, 
was  not  especially  occupied  with  either.  For  convenience 
these  groups  will  be  considered  separately,  though  it  should 
be  remembered  that  the  men  mentioned  in  each  were  pre 
eminently  authors,  not  philosophers  or  reformers. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  TRANSCENDENTALISTS 

/  What  Transcendentalism  Was.  —  An  attempt  to  give  a 
definition  of  Transcendentalism  would  lead  to  hopelessly 
abstruse  discussion,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  know  that'  the 
Transcendentalists,  as  the  term  was  used  in  New  England, 
were  men  who  believed  that  the  soul  of  man  was  of  the  same 
essence  as  the  divine  soul  and  hence  could  hold  direct  com 
munion  with  God,  and  that  every  individual  was  born  into 
the  world  with  certain  ideas  which  in  no  way  came  from  ex 
perience.  To  a  descendant  of  the  Puritans,  naturally,  the 
most  important  ideas  were  those  that  had  to  do  with 
conduct.  The  Calvinists  had  said  that  knowledge  of  what 
was  right  in  conduct  could  be  gained  only  from  a  study  of 
the  Word  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Bible.  Many  of  the 
eighteenth-century  philosophers  had  held  that  it  was  derived 
only  from  experience,  either  the  experience  of  the  individual, 
or  the  accumulated  experience  of  the  race.  The  Transcen 
dentalists  differed  from  both,  and  believed  that  if  each  man 
would  but  look  earnestly  within  himself,  his  own  spirit  — 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         133 

his  own  conscience  —  would  tell  him  what  he  should  and 
should  not  do. 

The  Transcendentalists  were  in  no  very  definite  sense  a 
school,  and  they  did  not  agree  in  a  definite  system  of  phi 
losophy,  but  a  few  leaders  of  the  movement  held  occasional 
meetings  for  discussion,  and  from  1840  to  1844  conducted 
a  quarterly  periodical,  the  Dial.1  Several  of  them  were  also 
interested  in  the  Brook  Farm  community,  which  existed  at 
West  Roxbury,  near  Boston,  from  1841  to  1847.2 

Emerson.  —  The  greatest  of  the  New  England  Transcen 
dentalists  was  RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON.  He  was  born  in 
1803,  in  Boston,  where  his  ancestors  were  of  the  old  intellec 
tual  aristocracy  of  Massachusetts.  The  death  of  his  father, 
the  pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Boston,  left  the  family  in 
straitened  circumstances,  but  he  was  educated  at  Harvard, 
where  he  ran  errands  for  the  president  and  waited  on  table 
at  commons  to  help  pay  his  expenses.  His  entrance  into 
his  chosen  career,  the  ministry,  was  deferred  by  the  necessity 
of  helping  to  educate  his  brothers,  and  by  ill-health,  but  at 
the  age  of  twenty-six  he  became  pastor  of  the  Old  North 
Church,  Boston.3  He  held  this  pastorate  three  years,  when 
he  resigned  because  he  did  not  wish  to  administer  the  Lord's 

1  Edited  first  by  Margaret  Fuller,  then  by  Emerson. 

2  The    so-called    Brook   Farm  community  was  not   really  com 
munistic,  since  its  financial  affairs  were  conducted  by  a  regularly 
organized   stock   company,   according   to   ordinary   business   prin 
ciples.     There  was,  however,  an  attempt  to  level  social  distinctions 
and  to  live  simply  and  close  to  the  soil.     The  Association  rented  a 
large  farm  on  which  most  of  the  labor  was  performed  by  the  work 
ing  members.     Among  residents  at  Brook  Farm  who  became  more 
or  less  famous  in  literature  were  Hawthorne,  Charles  A.   Dana, 
George   Ripley,  and  George  William   Curtis.     Kincrson,   Margaret 
Fuller,  and  others  were  frequent  visitors. 

3  This  church,  during  the  pastorate  of  the  Mathers  the  stronghold 
of  orthodoxy,  was  now,  like  most  of  the  old  New  England  churches, 
Unitarian. 


134     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Supper.1  After  a  visit  to  Europe,  during  which  he  met 
many  distinguished  men,  and  began  his  lifelong  friendship 
with  Carlyle,  he  settled  in  the  village  of  Concord,  Massachu 
setts,2  and  devoted  most  of  his  energies  to  lyceum  lecturing. 
His  life  was  outwardly  uneventful  until  1872,  when  the  shock 
caused  by  the  burning  of  his  house  aggravated  a  tendency 
to  mental  weakness  that  had  already  begun.  His  memory 
became  precarious,  his  mind  lost  much  of  its  grasp,  and  al 
though  he  was  neither  insane  nor  an  imbecile,  his  time  for 
important  creative  work  was  over.  He  lived,  however, 
until  1882. 

Emerson  began  to  write  rather  late  in  life.  His  first  thin 
volume,  entitled  Xature,  appeared  in  1836,  and  the  first  and 
the  second  series  of  Essays,  most  of  which  were  adapted  from 
lectures,  were  published  in  1841  and  1844,  respectively.3 
His  poetry  came  even  later  than  the  prose,  the  first  collection 
not  appearing  until  1847. 

At  first  Emerson  lectured  on  subjects  from  natural  history, 
English  literature,  and  his  travels,  but  he  soon  confined  him- 

1  Much  has  been  written  of  this  resignation,  both  by  those  who 
condemn  Emerson  as  un-Christian  and  by  those  who  praise  him  for 
his  conscientiousness.     Emerson  found  that  when  he  officiated  at  the 
sacrament  it  was  to  him  a  mere  ceremony,  without  the  meaning 
that  it  was  supposed  to  have,  and  so  long  as  this  was  so  he  did  not 
wish  to  take  part  in  it.     He  did  not  oppose  the  ordinance  for  those 
to  whom  it  had  a  real  significance,  and  indeed  seems  rather  to  have 
regretted  that  it  was  not  significant  to  him.     His  relations  with  the 
church  remained  friendly,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  his  salary  was 
continued  for  a  time  after  he  ceased  to  be  pastor,  and  that  later  he 
often  occupied  the  pulpit. 

2  Hence  he  was  in  later  years  sometimes  called  "The  Sage  of 
Concord." 

3  Later  prose  volumes  of   Emerson  were :     Representative   Men 
(1850) ;   English  Traits  (1856)  (largely  based  on  observations  during 
a  lecturing  trip  to    England  in  1847-1848)  ;    Society  and   Solitude 
(1870) ;     Letters   and  Social  Aims     (1875)     (compiled    from   older 
manuscripts  with  such  aid  as  he  was  able  to  give) ;   and  Natural 
History  of  Intellect  (1893),  published  after  his  death. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


135 


self  both  in  speaking  and  writing  to  topics  directly  related  to 
the  conduct  of  life.  "  Love,"  "  Friendship,"  "  Heroism," 
"  Self-Reliance,"  are  titles  that 
he  gave  to  both  lectures  and 
essays,  and  when  he  discussed 
"History"  or  "Politics,"  it 
was  with  the  same  attention 
to  problems  of  life  and  con 
duct.  The  Essays  have  been 
on  the  whole  the  most  popular 
of  his  writings,  but  there  is 
really  little  difference  between 
any  of  the  prose  works  written 
while  he  was  in  his  prime.  Na 
ture,  his  earliest  volume,  is  per 
haps  a  trifle  more  poetical  and 
mystical  than  the  Essays,  and 
some  of  the  later  writings  are  a 
little  more  formal.  Representa 
tive  M<j n,  which  was  no  doubt 
suggested  by  Carlyle's  Heroes 
and  Hero-Worship,  is  a  series 
of  papers  on  great  characters 
in  history,  but  Emerson  dis 
cusses  questions  of  morals  and 
philosophy  which  each  man 
suggests,  rather  than  the  men 
themselves.  In  almost  all  his 

prose  he  presents  different  aspects  of  the  one  thought  that 
was  really  his  message  to  the  world  —  the  thought  that  the 
soul  of  man  is  essentially  divine,  and  that  he  who  trusts  his 
own  better  self  thus  conies  into  communion  and  accord  with 
God  and  with  all  that  is  best  in  other  men. 


Old  North  Church,  Boston. 


136    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


Emerson's  prose  style  was  individual.  In  his  reading  it 
was  striking  sentences  and  phrases  that  impressed  him, 
rather  than  organized  systems  of  thought,  and  his  own  unit 
of  composition  was  the  sentence.  His  habit  was  to  write 
down  single  sentences  or  short  passages  on  various  topics 
as  they  came  into  his  mind,  and  when  he  prepared  a  lecture, 
he  worked  into  it  these  detached  passages  from  his  note 
books.  The  result  was  a  scrappiness  and  a  lack  of  close 

coherence  which  became  all  the 
more  noticeable  when  the  lec 
tures  were  transformed  into  es 
says.  The  separate  sentences 
are,  however,  admirably 
wrought  out.  As  Lowell  says, 
Emerson  always  found  the  one 
inevitable  word  which  exactly 
fitted  in  its  place.  He  did  not 
strive  for  epigrams  of  the  showy 
kind,  but  in  some  paragraphs 
almost  every  sentence  seems 
worthy  of  being  quoted  by  itself. 
This  one  defect  of  Emerson's 
style  —  his  scrappiness  —  is  less 

serious  because  of  his  theme.  The  repetition  and  reapplica- 
tion  of  one  fundamental  idea  —  the  idea  that  each  man  has 
within  himself  an  element  of  the  divine  —  itself  gives  unity 
to  his  writings.  Emerson's  Essays  should  not,  however,  be 
read  as  one  would  read  an  organized  presentation  of  a  system 
of  ideas.  They  are  rather  to  be  taken  as  stimulants  of  our  own 
thoughts.  Often  they  tell  little  or  nothing  that  we  did  not 
know  before,  but  they  present  things  in  a  new  light,  and  put 
us  in  the  way  of  reaching  conclusions  for  ourselves.  Natu 
rally,  those  of  idealistic  tendencies  will  gain  most  from  the 


Emerson  as  a  young  man. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT  137 

great  idealist,  but  most  persons  have  enough  idealism  to  en 
able  them  to  gain  something.1 

Emerson  should  therefore  be  viewed  as  "  the  friend  and 
aider  of  those  who  would  live  in  the  spirit  "  —  to  quote 
Matthew  Arnold's  phrase  —  rather  than  as  a  teacher  of  sys 
tematized  wisdom.  As  a  thinker  he  was  characterized  by 
insight  rather  than  by  analysis.  He  was  hardly  a  student 
in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term.  He  read  much  from  many 
authors,  especially  the  Germans,  and  he  even  dipped  into  the 
works  of  the  Oriental  thinkers,  yet  he  always  said  that  reading 
should  be  the  recreation  and  not  the  serious  work  of  a  scholar. 
This  view  harmonized  of  course  with  his  belief  that  a  man 
found  the  truth  within  himself,  and  should  never  let  others 
do  his  thinking  for  him. 

Emerson's  contemporaries  felt  that  much  of  his  power  came 
from  his  winning  personality,  which,  though  it  encouraged  no 
close  intimacies,  fascinated  almost  every  one  ;  and  something 
of  his  fine  benignity  is  reflected  in  all  his  works.  Perhaps 
his  most  remarkable  characteristic,  however,  was  his  happy 

1  Those  who  find  after  fair  trial  that  Kmerson  has  no  message  for 
them  need  not  feel  troubled,  but  those  to  whom  he  appeals  should 
learn  how  to  obtain  most  from  him.  In  a  literature  course  it  is 
often  necessary  to  finish  a  certain  number  of  pages  in  a  prescribed 
time,  but  this  is  not  the  way  to  read  Emerson.  One  should  be  ready 
to  stop  at  any  sentence,  and  to  follow  out  for  oneself  the  train  of 
thought  that  the  author  suggests.  Just  what  sentence  is  significant 
will  depend  on  the  thoughts  that  one  brings  to  the  reading,  and  on 
the  problems  that  are  perplexing  one  at  the  particular  time.  The 
same  essay,  when  reread  under  different  circumstances,  will  start 
wholly  different  trains  of  thought.  Kmerson  himself  says  "In 
every  work  of  genius  we  recognize  our  own  rejected  thoughts." 
This  is  frequently  true  in  his  own  work.  In  almost  every  essay 
we  find  thoughts  which  we  s^cni  to  have  had  ourselves  without 
recognizing  their  importance  or  trying  to  express  them.  When  we 
find  them  expressed,  they  become  again  our  own,  and  we  think  them 
•  ml  to  their  conclusions. 


138    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT  139 

combination  of  the  two  elements  of  the  Puritan  character, 
the  ideal  and  the  practical.  Though  he  was  the  leader  of  a 
group  of  men  who  were  often  looked  on  as  mystical  dreamers, 
and  was  himself  perhaps  the  greatest  idealist  of  them  all,  he 
was  nevertheless  a  sound,  sensible,  unassuming  man.  In 
college,  though  not  a  leader,  he  seems  to  have  had  some 
share  in  student  life,  and  was  known  as  an  author  of  little 
squibs  in  verse  and  of  what  his  biographer  calls  "  songs  for 
festive  occasions."  In  later  life,  while  always  reserved,  he  met 
men  of  all  sorts  pleasantly.  At  literary  dinners  in  Boston 
and  on  similar  occasions  he  said  little,  but  was  always  a  gra 
cious  and  appreciative  listener.  On  the  camping  trips  of  the 
Adirondack  Club,1  which  included  several  other  men  of 
letters,  he  was  always  a  little  apart,  yet  never  in  away  that 
made  his  presence  seem  awkward  or  out  of  place.  To  his 
farmer  neighbors  at  Concord  he  appeared  quite  one  of 
themselves,  and  many  of  them  probably  never  realized  his 
importance  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.2 

It  was  Emerson's  prose  rather  than  his  poems  that  first 
won  him  followers,  but  his  poems  have  gradually  come  to  be 
widely  appreciated.  Many  of  the  latter  present,  in  more 
imaginative  form,  the  same  ideas  that  are  found  in  the  Essays. 

1  It  caused  a  little  surprise  when  Emerson  bought  a  gun  to  take 
on  one  of  these  expeditions,  and  Longfellow  timidly  refused  to  join 
the  party,  saying  "Some  one  will  be  shot."     But  the  philosopher 
confined  himself  to  practicing  at  a  mark,  and  "never  shot  at  any 
living  thing"   —intentionally  or  unintentionally. 

2  After  Emerson's  death  a  fanner  whose  land  joined  his  said  in  a 
manner  that  implied  he  was  offering  the  highest  possible  tribute, 
"  M  r.  Emerson  was  a  good  neighbor ;  he  always  kept  his  fences  up." 
Emerson  always  attended  town  meetings,  and  took  his  full  share 
in  the  consideration  of  local  problems.     There  are  some  conflicting 
stories  as  1<>  his  dexterity  in  doing  manual  labor,  and  his  skill  in 
managing  business  transactions.      Every  one  likes  to  represent  a 
philosopher  as  impractical,  and  all  his  awkwardnesses  are  usually 
remembered. 


140     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


Emerson  never  fully  mastered  the  technique  of  verse, 
and  it  is  easy  to  point  out  rough  lines  and  bad  rhymes, 
but  in  poetry  as  in  prose  he  sometimes  struck  out  short 
passages  that  seem  as  inevitable  as  the  hills.  The  charge  of 
obscurity,  which  is  brought  against  his  poems,  really  holds 
for  only  a  few  of  them,  like  "  The  Sphinx  "  and  "  Brahma," 

and  not  for  these  if  the 
reader  is  familiar  with  Emer 
son's  philosophical  ideas. 
On  the  whole,  his  best  poetry 
is  found  in  the  shorter  poems 
and  fragments.  Of  the 
longer  poems,  "  May-Day," 
and  "  \Yoodnotes  "  contain 
exquisite  bits,  but  viewed  as 
wholes  seem  even  more  dis 
organized  than  the  Essays. 
"  Threnody,"  an  appealingly 
heartfelt  poem  on  the  death 
of  his  child,  is  variously 
rated,  but  to  many  readers 
it  seems  too  personal  and 
intense  in  its  grief  to  be  the 
highest  poetry. 

In    estimating    Emerson's 

rank  in  American  literature  it  should  be  remembered  that 
no  one  now  living  can  quite  realize  how  much  his  message 
meant  to  young  Americans  of  his  own  time.  Even  those 
who  have  never  read  a  line  of  his  writings  have  received 
much  of  his  teachings  through  sermons,  and  essays  by  other 
writers,  and  in  many  indirect  ways,  and  his  own  works  there 
fore  seem  less  novel  and  tonic  than  they  did  when  they  first 
appeared.  For  this  reason  it  may  be  that  as  years  go  by  his 


Emerson's  grave    in  Sleepy  Hollow 
cemetery,  Concord. 


141 

prose  will  be  less  read;  but  whether  this  is  true  or  not  he 
must  be  remembered  as  the  man  who  best  illustrated  New 
England  idealism  guided  by  New  England  common  sense, 
and  as  the  most  inspiring  ethical  teacher  that  America  has 
yet  produced. 

The  Lesser  Transcendentalists.  —  Many  New  England 
Transcendentalists  besides  Emerson  wrote,  and  a  few  are 
important  enough  to  be  noticed  here.1  The  new  ideas  were 
especially  attractive  to  men  with  new  theories  of  reform,2 
and  as  few  of  these  had  Emerson's  saving  common  sense, 
they  often  said  and  did  strange  things.  Their  oddities  were 
reported  and  exaggerated  until  the  word  "  Trahscendental- 
ist  "  was  sometimes  almost  a  term  of  ridicule.  As  a  group, 
however,  the  lesser  Transcendentalists,  like  their  leader,  were 
well  worthy  of  respect. 

HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU  was  one  of  the  men  whose  pecul 
iarities  were  magnified  and  misunderstood.  Born  at  Con 
cord  in  1817,  he  earned  his  way  through  Harvard  College,  and 
afterward  read,  wrote,  and  explored  the  woods,  as  the  spirit 
moved  him.  He  became  acquainted  with  Emerson  after  the 

1  Among  those  who  must  be  passed  by  without  comment  in  this 
brief  history  are  George  Ripley,  preacher,  founder  of  Brook  Farm, 
and  literary  critic ;    Theodore  Parker  and  James  Freeman  Clarke, 
preachers  and  reformers  ;   Orestes  A.  Brownson,  editor  and  essayist ; 
and  Christopher  P.  Cranch,  Jones  Very,  and  William  Ellery  Chan- 
ning  (2d),  poets. 

2  The  Transcendentalists  denied  that  one  man  had  any  authority 
over  another  in  matters  of  belief,  and  held  that  every  individual 
could  find  the  surest  revelation  of  truth  Avithin  himself.     When, 
therefore,  a  reformer  looked  within  his  own  heart  and  thought  he 
found  the  message  that  it  was  sinful  to  drive  horses,  or  to  eat  po 
tatoes,  or  to  kill  cankerworms,  no  true  Transcendentalist  could 
consistently  argue  with    him.     Unfortunately,  these   cranks  were 
only  half-way  Transcendentalists.     They  were  indignant  if  any  one 
questioned  their  perceptions  of  truth,  but  they  were  always  trying 
to  impress  their  ideas  on  others. 


142    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


latter  removed  to  Concord,  and  for  two  or  three  years  he 
lived   in    Emerson's   household,    making   himself   generally 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 

useful  as  a  younger  brother  might  do.     A  little  later  he  built 
a  hut  on  Walden  pond,  near  Concord,  on  a  tract  of  land  owned 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT  143 

by  Emerson,  and  here  he  lived  alone  for  two  or  three  years 
more.  The  matter-of-fact  residents  of  Concord  were  unable 
to  understand  a  college  graduate  who  adopted  no  profession, 
and  who,  when  he  needed  money  for  his  few  simple  wants, 
was  content  to  get  it  by  odd  jobs,  such  as  whitewashing  for 
the  neighbors.  Thoreau,  who  was  not  without  a  sense  of 
humor,  was  amused  at  the  interest  which  curious  persons 
showed  in  his  affairs,  and  apparently  indulged  in  some  odd 
freaks  merely  to  mystify  them.  He  was  neither  idle  nor 
lazy,  but  he  had  no  one  dependent  on  him,  his  own  wants 
were  few,  and  he  preferred  to  develop  himself  and  to  conduct 
his  life  in  his  own  way.1  While  his  course  was  not  one  that 
many  men  could  imitate  if  they  would,  there  was  really 
nothing  mysterious  about  it. 

Thoreau  was  an  omnivorous  student,  and  he  read  all  sorts 
of  things,  from  the  Greek  poets  to  the  most  out-of-the-way 
local  authors.  But  he  was  even  more  notable  as  an  observer 
of  nature  than  as  a  reader,  and  nature  furnished  the  inspira 
tion  for  many  of  his  best  writings.  During  his  lifetime  he 
published  a  few  magazine  articles  and  two  books,  A  Week 
on  the  Concord  a  ml  Mfrrhmir  Rivers,  and  Wulden,  or  Life  in 
the  Woods.  Since  his  death  in  1862  his  magazine  articles 
and  his  unpublished  manuscripts  have  been  gathered  into 

1  The  Walden  experiment  has  been  most  talked  about  and  most 
misunderstood.  It  was  really  a  sort  of  prolonged  camping-out. 
Most  persons  are  obliged  to  content  themselves  with  a  short  camp 
ing  time  in  the  summer,  but  more  than  one  lover  of  nature  has 
wished  that  he  might  extend  the  experience  through  the  year. 
Thoreau  did  this,  and  at  the  same  time  made  some  little  experiments 
to  see  how  simply  and  cheaply  he  could  live.  He  was  by  nature 
rather  solitary,  though  not  abnormally  so.  While  he  lived  at  Wal 
den,  he  went  to  Concord  almost  daily,  and  enjoyed  visiting  and 
receiving  visits  from  his  friends.  It  was  only  the  strangers  who 
peered  around  his  cottage  and  regarded  him  as  a  curiosity  that  he 
found  annoying. 


144     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

several  volumes.1  In  his  own  day  he  was  not  regarded  very 
highly,  but  he  has  had  the  experience,  rare  for  an  American 
author,  of  growing  steadily  in  esteem  since  his  death,  until 
he  now  takes  unquestioned  rank  as  the  second  of  the  Tran 
scendental  writers.  When  at  his  best  he  is  a  master  of  prose. 
This  best  is  usually  found  in  passages  that  record  his  delicate, 
accurate,  and  sympathetic  observation  of  nature,  and  that 
show  his  power  of  finding  the  interesting  elements  in  common 


Walden  Pond. 


The  heap   of  stones  marks  the  site  of 
Thoreau's  hut. 


things.  His  great  literary  defect  was  the  occasional  use  of 
startling  expressions  that  are  out  of  place  and  in  poor  taste. 
These  are  sometimes  found  in  the  descriptions  of  nature,  but 
more  often  in  the  passages  of  moralizing  and  philosophizing 
that  are  common  in  his  writings.  It  is  in  these  passages  that 
his  transcendental  ideas  are  expressed,  and  as  he  lacked 
Emerson's  sanity  and  sureness  of  taste,  he  sometimes  shows 
to  disadvantage.  His  verses  have  their  special  admirers,  but 
are  on  the  whole  of  little  value  in  comparison  to  his  prose. 
Like  all  uneven  writers  Thoreau  may  be  ranked  high  or  low 

1  The  titles  given  to  some  of  the  more  important  of  these  are, 
Excursions,  The  Maine  Woods,  Cape  Cod,  A  Yankee  in  Canada. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


145 


according  as  the  critic  is  most  impressed  by  his  finer  pas 
sages  or  by  the  occasional  cheapness  and  exaggeration  of 
statement.  Many  readers  find  a  wonderful  charm  in  his 


Margaret  Fuller. 

treatment  of  nature,  and  take  more  enjoyment  in  his  work 
than  in  that  of  other  men  who,  according  to  strict  rules  of 
criticism,  must  be  confessed  his  superiors. 

MARGARET  FULLER,  teacher,  essayist,  editor,  and  the  most 
famous  "  blue-stocking  "  of  her  time,  exerted  such  influence 


146     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


in  her  day  that  she  must  be  mentioned  here,  though  her 
works  are  now  little  read.  In  the  Dial  and  elsewhere  she 
discussed  questions  of  literature  and  art  from  a  Transcenden 
tal  viewpoint,  and  was  much  interested  in  the  Germans, 
particularly  in  Goethe,  some  of  whose  works  she  translated. 
She  was  also  one  of  the  first  American  women  to  plead  for 

wider  opportunities  for  her  sex. 
While  in  Europe  just  before  her 
death,  she  became  greatly  inter 
ested  in  the  movement  for  Ital 
ian  independence,  and  she  married 
an  Italian,  the  Marquis  d'Ossoli. 
In  library  catalogues  and  bio 
graphical  lists  she  frequently  ap 
pears  as  Madame  Ossoli,  though 
all  her  writings  were  first  pub 
lished  under  her  maiden  name.1 
The  oblivion  that  has  overtaken 
her  works  is  due  in  part  to  the 
fact  that  the  world  has  outgrown 
her  views,  in  part  to  a  lack  of  vital 
quality  in  her  prose  style. 

One  of  the  most  peculiar  of  the  Transcendentalists  was 
AMOS  BRONSON  ALCOTT.  During  his  long  life  he  proposed 
various  reforms  in  education,  advocated  a  number  of  erratic 

1  "Margaret, "  as  she  was  very  generally  called,  appears  fre 
quently  in  the  literary  gossip  and  memoirs  of  the  time.  Emerson, 
who  knew  her  well,  admired  her,  though  she  sometimes  amused 
him.  Lowell  execrates  her  both  privately  and  in  the  Fable  for 
Critics.  Amusing  passages  in  Hawthorne's  Note-Books  show  that 
she  was  one  of  his  pet  aversions.  She  seems  to  have  had  a  peculiar 
egotism,  and  an  amazing  lack  of  tact,  so  that  she  irritated  those  who 
knew  her  slightly.  On  her  intimates,  and  on  a  wide  circle  of  readers 
who  did  not  know  her  personally,  she  made  a  strong  and  a  favorable 
impression. 


Amos  Bronson  Alcott. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT  147 

theories  of  conduct,  founded  the  Concord  School  of  Phi 
losophy,  and  wrote  much  in  prose  and  verse.  He  was  the 
friend  of  Emerson  and  of  other  Transcendentalists,  who 
esteemed  him,  though  they  agreed  in  saying  that  he  talked 
better  than  he  wrote.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  he  is  now  re 
membered  chiefly  as  an  awful  example  of  the  oddities  of 
Transcendentalism.  His  "  Orphic  Sayings,"  a  series  of  not 
very  intelligible  observations  published  in  the  Dial,  attracted 
much  attention,  and  called  forth  much  ridicule  from  the  un 
sympathetic.1 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  ABOLITIONISTS 

The  Movement  against  Slavery.  —  The  awakening  of 
New  England  inspired  men  of  an  active  and  practical  turn  of 
mind  to  attack  definite  social  evils,  as  it  inspired  those  of  a 
more  philosophical  temperament  to  become  Transcenden- 
talists.  The  reform  which  at  the  time  seemed  most  needed 
and  to  which  most  of  them  devoted  themselves  was  the  aboli 
tion  of  negro  slavery.  The  protest  against  slavery  was  not 
new,  nor  had  it  been  confined  to  New  England.  During  the 
first  two  generations  of  the  Republic  most  Southern  as  well 
as  Northern  statesmen  had  regretted  the  existence  of  the 
system,  and  many  of  them  had  expressed  the  hope  that  it 
might  disappear  in  the  South  as  it  had  done  in  the  North. 

1  One  of  Alcott's  most  amusing  experiments  was  "The  New 
Eden,"  Fruitlands,  which  he  attempted  to  found  because  the  spirit 
at  Brook  Farm  seemed  too  sordid.  At  Fruitlands  all  labor  was  to 
be  done  by  hand,  since  it  was  wrong  to  enslave  animals;  all  insects 
were  to  be  unmolested,  since  they  had  a  right  to  what  was  necessary 
for  their  existence ;  no  vegetables  which  grew  underground  were 
to  be  eaten,  since  only  those  \\hi<-h  "aspired"  were  worthy  to  be 
the  food  of  man;  etc.  Alcott's  eldest  daughter,  Louisa  M.,  has 
recorded  in  some  of  her  stories  the  experiences  of  a  Transcendentalist 
household. 


148     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Antislavery  organizations  were  strong  at  the  South, 
where  the  members  saw  both  the  desirability  and  the  diffi 
culties  of  emancipation.  The  subsequent  bitter  antagonism 
between  North  and  South,  which  forced  both  sections  to 
support  extreme  views,  wTas  brought  about  by  complex  causes, 
many  of  them  economic  and  political.  The  only  one  which  con 
cerns  us  here  is  the  crusade  inaugurated  by  those  who  were 
so  impressed  by  the  moral  evils  of  slavery  that  they  refused 
to  consider  practical  difficulties  and  questions  of  expediency. 
The  majority  of  these  were,  naturally  enough,  descendants 
of  the  early  New  Englanders.  At  first  they  were  regarded 
as  fanatics,  and  were  fully  as  unpopular  among  their  neigh 
bors  as  in  the  South.  Among  those  who  wrote  and  spoke 
most  effectively  were  WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON,  editor 
and  pamphleteer;  WENDELL  PHILLIPS,  orator;  JOHN 
GREENLEAF  WHITTIER,  poet;  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL,  poet, 
satirist,  and  essayist;  and  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE,  novel 
ist.  Other  writers,  including  many  who  are  discussed  in 
other  sections  of  this  chapter,  were  interested  in  the  move 
ment,  but  those  just  mentioned  gave  so  much  of  time  and 
energy  to  the  cause  that  they  fairly  constitute  a  group  by 
themselves. 

Garrison  and  Phillips.  —  WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON  and 
WENDELL  PHILLIPS  held  far  higher  rank  as  leaders  of  the 
antislavery  movement  than  as  men  of  letters.  Garrison, 
who  conducted  the  Liberator,  an  abolitionist  journal  in  Boston, 
from  1831  J  until  the  slaves  were  freed,  was  a  representative 

1  The  sudden  change  in  the  intensity  of  feeling  as  the  slavery 
question  became  a  sectional  issue  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  just 
before  the  founding  of  the  Liberator,  Garrison  was  connected  with 
the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  which  had  for  some  years 
been  published  unmolested  by  a  Quaker  reformer  at  Baltimore. 
Though  Garrison's  radical  utterances  finally  led  to  his  arrest,  he 
suffered  no  serious  popular  violence.  A  few  years  later  his  life  would 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT  149 

of  the  humbler  and  poorer  classes,  and  had  received  most  of 
his  intellectual  training  in  the  offices  of  country  newspapers. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  personal  and  moral  courage,  and  of 
infinite  perseverance,  and  his  heroic  attacks  for  thirty-five 
years  tortured  the  popular  conscience  until  in  the  end  they 
compelled  action. 
They  were  well  writ 
ten  for  their  imme 
diate  purpose,  but 
they  have  no  literary 
qualities  that  should 
keep  them  alive  after 
their  work  is  done. 
WKXDELL  PHILLIPS 
was  in  many  ways  a 
direct  antithesis  to 
Garrison.  He  came 
of  a  well-to-do  and 
aristocratic  New  Eng 
land  family,  and  he 
gave  up  both  social 
position  and  the 
promise  of  success  in 
his  profession  to  allv  Wllliam  L1"-V(l  1cja":isou  :uul  WendeU 

1  Phillips. 

himselr  with  a  move 
ment  that  was  scorned  by  all  his  former  associates.     He  re 
mained  steadfast  to  the  cause,  however,  until  emancipation 
was  secured.     Although  not  the  most  logical,  he  was  probably 
the  most  moving  of  the  antislavery  orators.     The  reader 

not  have  been  safe  in  any  Southern  <-ily;  no  emancipation  paper 
would  have  been  permit  led  in  the  South;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
in  Northern  cities  mobs,  sometimes  headed  1»\  clergymen,  were 
organized  to  prevent  officers  from  returning  fugitive  slaves. 


150     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

finds  his  speeches  clear  and  sometimes  impassioned,  but 
much  of  their  power  must  have  been  due  to  his  handsome 
presence  and  his  fine  delivery. 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier.  —  WHITTIER,  the  chief  poet  of 
the  antislavery  movement,  differed  from  the  other  greater 
New  England  men  of  letters  in  being  descended  neither  from 
the  Puritans  nor  from  the  intellectual  aristocracy.  His 
ancestors  were  plain  Quaker  farmers,  who  had  occupied  the 
same  farm  at  Haverhill,  Massachusetts,  since  1647.  He  was 
born  in  1807,  and  had  the  usual  experiences  of  a  farmer's  boy 


.»..*.         M»llllllf 


Heading  of  Garrison's  Liln  rutur. 

in  a  family  that  was  none  too  well-to-do,  experiences  the 
pleasanter  features  of  which  are  reflected  in  "  The  Barefoot 
Boy,"  "  Snow-Bound,"  and  other  poems.  But  there  were 
less  happy  aspects  of  the  life,  and  to  the  hard  work  and  per 
haps  to  ignorant  disregard  of  hygienic  laws  Whittier  owed  the 
poor  health  from  which  he  always  suffered.  At  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  began  to  write  verses,  inspired,  it  is  said,  by 
meeting  with  Burns's  poems.  At  this  time  Garrison  was 
editing  a  country  paper  in  the  vicinity,  and  when  one  of  these 
early  poems  was  sent  to  him,  he  at  once  took  an  interest  in 
the  young  author.  It  was  partly  as  a  result  of  Garrison's 
pleading  that  Whittier  was  permitted  by  his  father  to  spend 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


151 


two  winters  at  the  Haverhill  academy.1  Afterward  Garri 
son  secured  for  him  an  editorial  position  in  Boston,  and  for 
the  next  five  years  he  edited  various  papers  and  spent  some 


Whittior's  birthplace. 

time  on  the  farm.     Ill-health  interfered  with  all  his  activi 
ties,  and  in  1836  the  old  homestead  was  sold,  and  he  removed 

1  The  New  England  academy  of  that  day  corresponded  as  nearly 
as  may  be  to  the  high  school  of  the  present,  though  its  students 
were  usually  not  so  well  prepared,  or  rather,  not  prepared  in  so  many 
subjects,  as  are  those  who  enter  high  school  now.  At  Haverhill 
Whittier  studied  English  literature  and  French.  He  earned  his  own 
expenses  for  these  two  terms,  part  of  them  by  making  slippers  in 
the  evenings  after  the  farm  work  was  done.  II  is  recorded  that 
before  beginning  one  term  he  made  an  estimate  and  found  that  he 
had  enougli  money  1o  pay  all  his  expenses,  and  twenty-five  cents 
more.  He  completed  the  term  \\iih  all  debts  paid  — and  had  the 
twenty-five  cents  left.  This  is  not  so  admirable  an  achievement  as 
writing  "Snow-Bound,"  but  to  some  of  us  it  seems  almost  as  re 
markable. 


152     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

to  the  neighboring  village  of  Amesbury.  Here  he  continued 
to  reside  until  his  death  in  1892. l  From  the  publication  of 
his  first  antislavery  pamphlet,  "  Justice  and  Expediency,"  in 
1833,  until  the  war  he  worked  consistently  for  the  abolition 
movement.  He  wrote  much  in  prose  and  verse,  edited  aboli 
tionist  papers  for  brief  intervals,  attended  conventions, 
served  on  committees,  and  did  everything  that  his  health 
and  circumstances  permitted.  After  the  slave  was  freed, 
he  became  interested  in  other  reforms,  and  he  gave  more  time 
to  nonpolitical  verse. 

The  Quakers,  who  in  matters  of  conduct  were  even  stricter 
than  the  Puritans,  were  as  a  class  opposed  to  slavery,  but  it 
was  probably  through  the  influence  of  Garrison  that  Whittier 
became  active  in  the  abolitionist  movement.  Before  this  he 
had  dabbled  in  politics  a  little,  and  had  shown  such  abilities 
that  he  was  regarded  as  a  coming  man  who  would  win  a  local 
reputation,  and  perhaps  be  sent  to  Congress.  At  this  time, 
however,  the  abolitionists  were  so  unpopular 2  that  when  he 
allied  himself  with  them,  he  deliberately  gave  up  all  hope  of 
personal  advancement.3  His  devotion  to  the  reform  also 

1  Those  who  enjoy  the    gossipy  side  of   literary  biography  may 
find  in  various  anecdotes  of  Whittier,  and  in  several  of  his  poems, 
hints  of  a  romantic  reason  why  he  never  married.     There  were  also, 
probably,  practical  reasons.     Whittier  was  devoted  to  his  mother, 
and  she  was  dependent  on  him  for  support.     She  was  a  strict  devotee 
of  her  sect,  and  could  never  have  been  happy  in  the  household  with 
a  daughter-in-law  who  was  of  another  faith.     Apparently  the  women 
who  most  appealed  to  Whittier  were  not  Quakeresses ;  and  with  his 
straitened  financial  circumstances  and  his  poor  health  it  was  out 
of  the  question  for  him  to  maintain  two  domestic  establishments. 

2  Whittier  had  more  than  one  experience  with  mob  violence. 

"•  Whittier  continued,  however,  to  use  his  political  talents  in  be 
half  of  the  new  movement.  The  abolitionists  soon  divided  into 
two  parties.  The  stricter  group,  led  by  Garrison,  refused  to  vote  or 
take  any  part  in  a  government  that  recognized  slavery.  More 
practical  men,  like  Whittier,  felt  that  half  a  loaf  was  better  than  no 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


153 


had  a  serious  influence  on  his  poetry.  In  early  youth  he  had 
written  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  Byron  and  Scott,  and  had 
been  especially  influenced  by  Scott's  narrative  poems.  The 
twelve  volumes  of  verse  issued  between  1837  and  1865, 
though  they  contain  much  miscellaneous  work,  are  largely 
made  up  of  poems  on  slavery.  The  fact  that  there  were 
twelve  of  these  volumes  also  hints  at  one  important  result 
of  his  connection  with  a  reform.  He  was  led  to  write  large 
numbers  of  what  have  been  termed 
"editorials  in  verse"  —poems 
called  forth  by  particular  occur 
rences,  and  intended  to  produce 
their  effects  while  these  occur 
rences  were  fresh  in  the  public 
mind.  He  thus  formed  the  habit 
of  writing  too  much  and  too  rap 
idly,  and  of  publishing  without  tak 
ing  time  for  revision.  After  the 
slaves  were  freed,  he  could  not 
change  the  literary  habits  of  years, 
though  he  wrote  more  on  general 
subjects.  To  the  period  after  the 
war  belong  "Snow-Bound,"  "  The  Tent  on  the  Beach,"  "  In 
School-Days,"  and  others  of  his  best  known  poems. 

Whittierhad  the  limitations  natural  to  a  Quaker  and  a  New 
Englander  of  the  humbler  class.  He  was  relatively  untrained 
in  books.  He  never  traveled,  and  although  he  was  an  hon 
ored  friend  of  the  other  New  England  men  of  letters,  and  was 
always  welcome  in  the  social  and  literary  circles  of  Boston, 
he  lived  largely  among  men  of  the  class  in  which  he  was  born. 

broad.  Whittior  labored  wit'i  politicians  of  both  parties,  secured 
letters  and  pledges  from  c.-mdidntcs  for  office,  and  tried  to  swing  the 
antislavery  support  to  those  who  for  the  time  being  promised  most. 


John  Greenleaf  Whittier. 


154    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

He  never  attended  a  theater,  he  cared  little  for  music,  and  he 
knew  little  of  the  other  arts.  Moreover  he  gave  thirty  of  the 
best  years  of  his  life  to  an  unpopular  reform,  and  in  doing  so 
acquired  habits  of  writing  that  were  not  favorable  to  his 
highest  artistic  development.  But,  as  a  result  of  his  early 
life  and  training,  he  knew  and  enjoyed  nature.  He  under 
stood  men,  more  especially  those  of  the  simple,  earnest  sort 
with  which  he  lived.  He  had  the  knack  of  story-telling  which 
often  belongs  to  men  of  his  class.  Above  all,  he  had  a  strong, 
well-balanced  personality  —  practical  common  sense,  tact 
for  influencing  men,  charity  for  others,  uncompromising 
devotion  to  the  truth.  These  limitations  and  excellences  of 
the  man  are  all  reflected  with  the  greatest  clearness  in  his 
poems. 

Most  of  Whittier's  antislavery  poems  have  now  lost  much 
of  their  interest.  Still,  they  are  among  the  best  of  the 
thousands  of  verses  that  the  great  struggle  called  forth. 
They  were  intense,  as  they  must  have  been  to  arouse  public 
sentiment,  but  they  are  never  vindictive  or  bitterly  personal. 
His  restraint,  and  his  habit  of  viewing  the  misdeeds  of  others 
rather  in  sorrow  than  in  anger,  are  shown  in  "  Ichabod,"  his 
wonderful  lines  on  what  seemed  to  him  Webster's  abandon 
ment  of  a  just  cause.  Occasionally  he  pictured  the  suffer 
ings  of  the  slave,  as  in  the  "  Hunters  of  Men,"  but  in  general 
he  tried  less  frequently  than  most  antislavery  poets  to  harrow 
the  feelings  of  his  readers.  When  he  aroused  sympathy  for 
the  slave,  it  was  by  showing  the  injustice  of  slavery.  That  he 
was,  however,  capable  of  indignation  is  shown  by  poems,  like 
"  Massachusetts  to  Virginia,"  which  still  stir  the  reader 
though  the  circumstances  that  called  them  forth  disappeared 
two  generations  ago. 

The  most  popular  and  on  the  whole  the  best  of  Whittier's 
work  is  found  in  his  shorter  narrative  and  descriptive  poems, 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT  155 

and  those  in  which  he  portrays,  often  with  an  element  of 
personal  reminiscence,  the  simple  life  of  rural  New  P^ngland. 
The  long  narrative  poems  of  his  early  years  were  unsuccess 
ful,  but  he  managed  the  ballad  and  the  short  narrative  ad 
mirably —  telling  his  story  simply,  as  in  "Maud  Muller," 
"In  School  Days,"  and  "Telling  the  Bees,"  or  with  dramatic 
development,  as  in  "  Skipper  Ireson's  Ride."  The  "  Tent  on 
the  Beach  "  follows  the  old  plan  of  having  each  member  of  a 
party  tell  a  story;  and  while  the  sections  are  uneven  in  qual 
ity,  some  of  them  are  excellently  done.1  The  descriptive  ele 
ment  in  the  ballads  is  often  as  effective  as  the  action,2  and 
in  another  group  of  poems  is  even  more  important.  "  Snow- 
Bound,"  the  best  of  the  latter  group,  is  an  American  classic, 
partly  because  of  the  vividness  and  accuracy  of  the  descrip 
tions,  partly  because  of  the  simplicity  and  the  moral  sweet 
ness  that  pervade  the  poem.  It  has  artistic  defects  —  crudi 
ties  of  verse  and  passages  of  commonplace  moralizing  —  but 
only  the  carping  critic  is  troubled. by  these.  The  poet  has 
brought  out  the  finer  characteristics  of  a  life  that  on  the  sur 
face  must  have  been  trying  enough  to  mind  and  body,  and 
one  leaves  the  poem  with  a  full  appreciation  of  the  dignity 
and  independence  which  the  simple  but  vigorous  New  Eng 
land  farm  life  produced.  Whittier  was  naturally  fond  of 
New  England  subjects,  and  besides  the  rural  life  that  he  knew 
from  experience  he  wrote  on  the  Indians  and  the  early  per 
secution  of  the  witches  and  the  Quakers.3 

1  Whittier  represents  a  camping  party  of  three  persons.     He  does 
not  give  their  names,  but  they  are  readily  recognizable  as  James  T. 
Fields,  the  publisher  and  essayist,  Bayard  Taylor,  and  the  poet 
himself. 

2  See,  for  example,  the  vivid  pictures  in  "Telling  the  Bees,"  and 
in  "Skipper  Ireson's  Ride."     The  student  should  find  many  other 
similar  passages. 

8<  e,  for  example,  "Cassandra  Southwick,"  "Mabel  Martin," 
"In  the  'Old  South,'"  "The  King's  Missive." 


156     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Whittier  wrote  a  number  of  poems  on  religious  subjects 
which  are,  technically  speaking,  not  among  his  best,  but 
which  express  the  aspirations  of  the  heart  so  earnestly  and 
naturally  that  they  have  been  adopted  into  the  hymn  books 
of  most  Protestant  denominations.1  He  also  wrote,  in  his 
later  years  especially,  some  "  Songs  of  labor  and  reform," 
in  which  he  honored  various  crafts  and  gave  his  support  to 
various  social  movements.  His  prose,  which  occupies  three 
volumes  of  his  collected  works,  is  good,  but  would  hardly  be 
remembered  if  it  were  not  for  his  reputation  as  a  poet.  The 
best  pieces  are  "  Margaret  Smith's  Journal,"  a  fictitious  diary 
of  a  young  woman  in  colonial  New  England,  and  a  few  short 
personal  essays. 

It  has  sometimes  been  said  that  Whittier  was  the  most 
representative  poet  of  nineteenth-century  Xew  England,  and 
much  might  be  written  in  support  of  this  claim.  He  was 
not  the  most  cultured,  or  the  widest  in  range,  or  the  most 
perfect  in  literary  workmanship,  but  he  showed  at  least  as 
well  as  any  man  the  New  England  uprightness,  independ 
ence,  idealism,  and  courage  in  attacking  wrong,  while  his 
defects  and  limitations  were  themselves  the  product  of  Xew 
England  life. 

James  Russell  Lowell.  —  LOWELL  was  another  writer  who 
sacrificed  much  and  gave  many  of  his  best  energies  for  the 
unpopular  abolition  movement.  He  never  devoted  himself 
quite  so  completely  to  the  cause  as  did  Whittier,  and  since 
he  was  twelve  years  younger  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
came  at  an  earlier  period  of  his  life.  Still,  he  fairly  deserves 
to  be  classed  in  the  anti-slavery  group. 

Lowell's  family  was  one  of  distinction  in  Xew  England.2 

1  Many  hymns  have  been  made  by  choosing  stanzas  from  the 
two  poems,  "The  Eternal  Goodness,"  and  "Our  Master." 

2  The  poet's  family  has  numbered  among  its  members  the  founder 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT  157 

His  father  was  pastor  of  a  church  in  Boston,  but  lived  in 
the  family  home,  Elmwood,  on  the  outskirts  of  Cambridge. 


James  Russell  Lowell. 


Here  James  Russell  was  born  in  1819.     The  boy  grew  up  in 
the  delightful  social  and  literary  atmosphere  of  the  college 

of   Lowell,    Massachusetts,    the    founder   of    the    Lowell    Institute, 
Boston,  and  (lie  present   president  of  Harvard  College. 


158    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


town,  and  early  acquired  habits  of  reading,  and  literary 
tastes.  He  entered  Harvard,  where  he  was  a  popular,  happy- 
go-lucky  student,  who  did  excellently  well  the  things  that 
interested  him,  but  who  neglected  unpleasant  duties  to  such 
an  extent  that  he  was  rusticated  in  his  senior  year.1  He 

received  his  degree,  however, 
and  after  hesitating  over  other 
professions  took  up  the  study 
of  the  law  and  was  graduated 
from  Harvard  law  school.  He 
practiced  his  profession  a  little, 
but  without  enthusiasm.  Even 
while  he  kept  his  law  office 
open,  he  devoted  himself  largely 
to  literature,  and  he  founded  a 
short-lived  magazine,  the  Pio 
neer.  He  had  become  engaged 
to  Maria  White,  the  sister  of  a 
college  friend,2  a  young  woman 
of  great  strength  and  sweetness 

of  character,  and  in  1844  he  was  married.  His  early  poems 
had  nothing  to  do  with  slavery,  but,  largely  through  the  in- 

1  Rustication  consisted  in  placing  a  student  in  the  charge  of  some 
country  clergyman,  in  whose  family  he  boarded,  and  who  acted  as 
tutor  and  saw  that  he  spent  his  time  in  approved  fashion.     The 
punishment  naturally  disappeared  with  the  development  of  special 
ization  and  the  elective  system.     It  would  now  be  hard  to  find  a 
country  minister  who  would  undertake  to  give  a  college  senior  ade 
quate  instruction  in  all  his  studies. 

2  Russell  Lowell  and  Maria  White  were  the  most  popular  mem 
bers  of  a  group  of  young  people  from  the  most  cultured  families  of 
Boston  and  vicinity,  mostly  Harvard  graduates  and  their  sisters. 
It  is  said  that  after  they  became  engaged  they  were  accustomed  to 
pass  their  letters  about  among  their  friends  that  others  might  enjoy 
their  happiness.     The  fact  is  an  interesting  reminder  of  the  idyllic 
conditions  in  which  Lowell's  youth  was  spent. 


Lowell  at  31. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         159 

fluence  of  Miss  White,  he  became  an  ardent  abolitionist,  i 
He  was  a  regular  contributor  of  both  prose  and  verse  to  the 
Anti-Slavery  Standard,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Mexican  War 
he  began  his  political  satire, 'the  Biglow  Papers.  In  1848  - 
a  convenient  year  to  remember  in  Lowell's  life  —  the  first 
series  of  Biglow  Papers  was  issued  in  book  form,  and  also 
the  Fable  for  Critics,  the  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,  and  an 
other  volume  of  poems.  Mrs.  Lowell  died  in  1853.  The 
husband  commemorated  her  loss,  and  that  of  three  chil 
dren  who  died  before  their  mother,  in  several  of  his  finest 
poems.1  In  1856  Lowell  succeeded  Longfellow  as  Smith 
Professor  of  modern  languages  and  literature  at  Harvard 
College.  The  next  year  he  was  married  to  Miss  Frances 
Dunlap.  From  1857  to  1861  he  was  editor  of  the  newly 
founded  Atlantic  Monthly,  and  was  chiefly  responsible  for 
the  preeminent  position  which  that  magazine  long  oc 
cupied.  From  1863  to  1872  he  was  one  of  the  editors  of  the 
North  American  Review.  He  wrote  many  essays  for  both 
these  periodicals  —  before  and  during  the  war  largely  on 
political  matters,  afterward  mostly  on  literature.  The  sec 
ond  series  of  the  Biglow  Papers  was  published  in  the  Atlan 
tic  from  1862  to  1866.  From  1877  to  1880  he  was  United 
States  minister  to  Spain,  and  from  1880  to  1885  minister 
to  England.  In  the  latter  position,  especially,  he  distin 
guished  himself  by  his  geniality,  his  wit,  and  his  success  as  an 
occasional  speaker,  and  did  much  to  improve  the  feeling  be 
tween  the  intellectual  classes  of  England  and  of  America  — 
a  feeling  which  since  the  Civil  War  had  been  a  little  strained. 
He  died  at  the  family  home,  Elmwood,  in  1891. 

The  reader  who  would  estimate  Lowell's  works  rightly 
must  be  familiar  with  the  facts  of  his  life,  and  must  under- 

1  See  "She  Came  and  Went,"  "After  the  Burial,"  "The  Change 
ling,"  "Auf  Wiedersehen,"  and  the  "Palinode,"  etc. 


160     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

stand  his  personality.  In  his  case,  more  than  that  of  almost 
any  other  American  writer,  the  works  are  the  expression  of 
the  man  —  the  expression  not  merely  of  his  general  charac 
teristics,  but  of  his  moods  and  circumstances.  As  a  young 
man  he  was  fascinating,  witty,  versatile,  the  favorite  and  the 
chief  contributor  of  fun  and  entertainment  at  every  gathering 
of  his  friends.  As  the  hardships  1  and  sorrows  of  life  came 
upon  him,  he  became  more  subdued,  but  he  was  always  the 
same  kindly,  humorous  man,  showing  with  perfect  openness 
his  every  mood.  Indeed,  his  frankness  was  always  remark 
able,  and  he  was  ready  to  reveal  his  inmost  heart  to  those 
with  whom  he  felt  in  sympathy.  As  a  teacher  he  was  more 
enthusiastic  than  scientific,  and  he  made  work  traditionally 
easy  for  the  lazy  student,  though  he  gave  much  to  those  who 
wished  to  learn.  His  simplicity  and  his  individuality  were 
so  marked  that  to  many  it  seemed  strange  that  he  should 
have  a  place  in  court  and  diplomatic  circles,  yet  it  was  just 
these  qualities  that  made  him  admired  in  England  as  at  home. 
Lowell's  work  may  be  considered  under  three  heads  —  the 
p_oems,  the  Bigloic  Papers,  and  the  prose  essays.  As  a  young 
man  Lowell  believed  in  his  own  future  as  a  poet,  and  put  his 
best  into  his  verse.  There  are  admirable  qualities  in  this 
early  work,  but  it  is  imitative  of  other  poets,  and  it  does  not 
long  sustain  the  same  tone.  The  best  poems  written  before 
1848  were  those  which  deal  with  the  author's  personal  affec 
tions  and. griefs,  like  "The  Changeling,"  "She  Came  and 
Went  " ;  "  The  Present  Crisis,"  which  belongs  with  the  anti- 
slavery  work;  and  the  poems  of  nature  appreciation  and  de- 

1  While  Lowell  never  really  suffered  from  poverty,  he  was  obliged 
in  the  first  years  of  his  married  life  to  exemplify  strictly  the  formula 
"Plain  living  and  high  thinking."  It  is  said  that  the  first  Lowell 
baby  was  rocked  in  a  cradle  made  from  a  common  barrel  split  length 
wise  ;  but  Mrs.  Lowell  had  painted  on  one  barrel  head  the  family 
crest,  and  on  the  other  a  Latin  motto. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         161 

scription,  such  as  "  To  a  Pine-Tree,"  and  "  Beaver  Brook." 
The  two  long  poems  which  appeared  in  1848  differ  widely 
from  each  other  in  every  respect.  The  Fable  for  Critics,  first 
published  anonymously,  shows  Lowell's  inveterate  habit  of 
joking,  which  was  well  known  to  his  friends,  but  which,  up 
to  this  time,  he  had  not  allowed  to  manifest  itself  in  his  pub 
lished  verse.  There  is  really  a  "  fable  "  of  Apollo  and  a 
critic,  but  it  is  so  overlaid  with  puns  and  digressions  that 
few  readers  concern  themselves  with  it.  The  best  part  of 
the  poem  is  found  in  the  short  comments  on  contemporary 
writers.  The  criticisms  of  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  and  others 
seem  sound  to-day,  though  in  some  cases  Lowell  was  judging 
the  authors  only  from  their  early  work.1  The  Vision  of  Sir 
Launfal  is  one  of  the  most  popular  of  Lowell's  poems,  though 
taken  as  a  whole  it  is  hardly  his  best.  It  illustrates  the 
New  England  fondness  for  sentimental  moralizing,  and  also, 
in  its  history,  the  influence  of  the  "  inspiration  "  theory  of 
poetry.  It  is  said  to  have  been  written  in  forty-eight  hours 
and  its  defects  are  such  as  might  have  been  removed  by 
careful  revision.2  The  best  parts  are  the  descriptive  passages. 

1  Lowell's  criticism  of  himself  follows.     The  most  important  of 
his  ''isms"  was,  of  course,  abolitionism. 

"There  is  Lowell,  who's  striving  Parnassus  to  climb 
With  a  whole  bale  of  isms  tied  together  with  rhyme, 
He  might  get  on  alone,  spite  of  brambles  and  boulders, 
But  he  can't  with  that  bundle  he  has  on  his  shoulders, 
The  top  of  the  hill  he  will  ne'er  come  nigh  reaching 
Till  he  learns  the  distinction  'twixt  singing  and  preaching ; 
His  lyre  has  some  chords  that  would  ring  pretty  well, 
But  he'd  rather  by  half  make  a  drum  of  the  shell, 
And  rattle  away  till  he's  old  as  Methusalem, 
At  the  head  of  a  march  to  the  last  new  Jerusalem." 

2  The  division  of  the  poem  into  sections  is  misleading,  so  that 
many  readers  think  that  Sir  Launfal  really  went  on  his  pilgrimage, 
whereas  he  only  dreamed  of  it.     There  are  also  prosaic  lines,  such  as 

"The  flush  of  life  may  well  be  seen," 
M 


162    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Lowell's  later  poems  are  less  obviously  imitative  than  his 
early  work,  yet  he  never  evolved  a  poetic  manner  that  was 
really  his  own.  The  "  Harvard  Commemoration  Ode," 
which  many  admirers  consider  his  masterpiece,  was  read 
in  1865  at  the  services  held  in  honor  of  the  sons  of  Harvard 
who  died  in  the  Civil  War.  In  this,  as  in  his  poem  on  the 
death  of  Agassiz,  and  many  others,  are  passages  that  are  fine 
both  in  thought  and  in  music.  There  werej)oems  on  nature 
in  these  later  years,  less  exuberant,  but  fully  as  heartfelt 
as  those  of  the  earlier  time.  There  were  also  a  number  of 
very  brief,  almost  epigrammatic  poems,  such  as  "  Monna 
Lisa,"  which  are  as  perfect  in  form  as  anything  that  Lowell 
wrote,  though  they  are  hardly  so  natural  or  so  representative 
of  the  man  as  the  better  passages  of  the  longer  poems. 

The  first  series  of  the  Biglow  Papers  was  begun  as  a  pro 
test  against  the  Mexican  War.  Like  many  other  Northerners, 
Lowell  felt  that  the  war  was  being  urged  by  the  slave  interests 
for  their  own  ends,  and  he  realized  that  the  surest  way  to 
oppose  it  without  appearing  unpatriotic  or  cowardly  was  by 
ridicule.  He  therefore  contributed,  first  to  the  Boston 
Courier,  and  afterward  to  the  Anti-Slavery  Standard,  a  series 
of  poems  in  Yankee  dialect  which  were  supposed  to  be  written 

and  "For  other  couriers  we  should  not  lack," 

which  are  the  more  noticeable  because  they  occur  in  passages  of  the 
finest  poetry ;  and  some  of  the  figures  of  speech  are  extravagant 
and  absurd.  But  it  seems  ungracious  to  point  out  the  blemishes 
of  work  which,  with  a  little  more  pains  on  the  part  of  the  author, 
might  have  been  so  fine.  Popular  taste  has  chosen  the  description 
beginning 

"And  what  is  so  rare  as  a  day  in  June?" 

for  highest  approval,  and  this  is  perhaps  the  best  sustained  passage, 
but  bits  in  other  sections  of  the  poem  are  at  least  as  good.  The 
student  should  find  these  for  himself. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         163 

by  one  Hosea  Biglow,  and  sent  to  the  editor  by  his  father. 
The  imaginary  author  was  represented  as  a  typical  New 
England  farmer,  a  young  man  without  education,  but  with 
the  Yankee  wit,  morals,  and  independence.  Hosea's  utter 
ances,  though  in  dialect  and  full  of  Yankee  humor,1  are  at 
bottom  earnest  arguments  against  the  war  and  its  supporters. 
Another  character,  Birdofreedom  Sawin,  a  thoughtless  and 
unprincipled  adventurer  who  enlists  in  the  army  and  writes 
letters  telling  of  his  experiences  in  Mexico,  is  treated  in  a 
spirit  of  broad  burlesque.  When  the  papers  were  gathered 
together  in  1848,  Lowell  created  a  third  character,  the 
Reverend  Homer  ^Yilbur,  a  tiresome  old  clergyman,  who  is 
supposed  to  edit  the  papers  and  to  introduce  his  own  obser 
vations  on  all  sorts  of  things.  He  also  wrote  a  burlesque 
preface,  and  the  "  Notices  of  an  Independent  Press,"  sup 
posed  comments  of  newspapers,  which  are  really  ironical 
parodies  on  the  book  reviews  of  the  time.2  This  added 

1  Lowell  was  always  interested  in  original  forms  of  speech,  and 
particularly  in  the  dialect  that  he  heard  from  the  country  people 
when  a  boy.  He  probably  chose  this  form  of  expression  for  Hosea, 
however,  because  it  gave  a  humorous  effect,  and  because  it  enabled 
him  to  say  without  offense  many  things  that  he  could  not  have  said 
in  another  fashion.  Take,  for  example,  a  stanza  from  the  first 
number : 

"Ez  fer  war,  I  call  it  murder,  — 

There  you  hev  it  plain  an'  flat ; 
I  don't  want  to  go  no  furder 

Than  my  Testyment  fer  that. 
God  hez  sed  so  plump  an'  fairly, 

It's  ez  long  ez  it  is  broad, 
An'  you've  gut  to  git  up  airly 
Ef  you  want  to  take  in  God." 

The  reader  excuses  this  when  it  purports  to  come  from  an  uncul 
tured  countryman.  If  Lowell  had  mended  the  spelling  of  the 
stanza  and  published  it  as  his  own,  it  would  have  seemed  vulgar  and 
irreverent. 

-  "The  Courtin',"  Lowell's  one  important  rionpolitical  poem  in 


164     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

material  is  amusing,  though  there  is  rather  too  much  of  it, 
but  it  tends  to  make  the  reader  forget  the  political  purpose 
of  the  author,  and  would  have  been  out  of  place  in  the  orig 
inal  newspaper  publication.  The  verses  of  Hosea  Biglow 
appealed  to  all  classes  of  voters,  from  the  most  highly  edu- 


Elmwood,  Lowell's  home  in  Cambridge. 

cated  man  to  the  laborer  in  the  streets.  The  satire  in  Homer 
Wilbur's  pedantic  essays  could  be  fully  appreciated  only  by 
the  more  intellectual  classes. 

The  second  series  of  the  Biglow  Papers,  written  nearly 
twenty  years  after  the  first,  during  the  Civil  War,  and  dealing 
with  contemporary  events,  is  on  the  same  plan  and  has  the 
same  characters.  It  is  less  rollicking  in  its  enthusiasm, 
the  dialect  poems  have  touches  of  pathos  as  well  as  of  humor, 

dialect,  was  included  in  this  introductory  material.  A  later  version, 
with  nearly  twice  as  many  stanzas,  is  found  in  the  Introduction  to 
the  Second  Series. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         165 

and  they  are  evidently  the  more  careful  work  of  a  mature  man 
of  letters.  Critics  differ  as  to  which  series  is  the  better,  but 
the  Papers  as  a  whole  easily  take  rank  as  the  greatest  Ameri 
can  political  satire. 

The  prose  which  Lowell  chose  for  preservation  in  his  col 
lected  works  includes  one  volume  of  political  essays  and 
several  volumes  of  essays  on  literary  and  miscellaneous 
subjects.  The  papers  included  in  the  volume  of  political 
essays  are  but  a  very  small  part  of  the  political  prose  which 
he  contributed  to  newspapers  and  magazines,  but  they  are 
representative  of  his  best  work  of  this  sort.  They  show 
his  patriotism  and  thorough  Americanism,  his  fairness  to 
opponents,  and  his  habit  of  appealing  to  high  motives, 
rather  than  to  expediency;  but  since  their  literary  qualities 
arc  those  of  the  other  essays  they  need  not  be  discussed 
in  detail. 

The  greater  number  of  the  literary  essays  were  written 
after  the  close  of  the  war.1  Lowell  was  at  his  best  in  the  dis 
cussion  of  the  masters  —  Dante,  Chaucer,  Shakespeare, 
Milton.  Notwithstanding  the  excellence  of  his  characteriza 
tions  in  the  Fable  for  Critics,  his  few  essays  on  contemporary 
writers  were  relatively  unsuccessful.  This  may  be  due  in 
part  to  his  habits  of  study  and  writing.  In  youth  he  formed 
the  practice  of  reading  and  rereading  the  greater  works  of 
literature,  and  of  noting  on  margins  and  fly-leaves  the  impres 
sions,  criticisms,  and  comparisons  that  came  into  his  mind 
at  each  perusal.  When  he  came,  relatively  late  in  life,  to 

1  Many  of  these  were  first  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  and 
the  North  American  Review,  and  were  collected  into  the  volumes 
called  by  his  publishers  Among  my  Books  (1870,  second  series  1876), 
and  My  Study  Windows  (1871).  As  early  as  1845  Lowell  had 
issued  a  volume  of  Conversation*  on  Home  of  the  Old  Poets.  Latest 
Litirnnj  /','.s.sr///.s  unit  Addresses  was  almost  ready  for  the  printer  at 
the  time  of  his  death. 


166     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

write  essays  on  these  works,  he  had  a  rich  mass  of  material 
at  hand.  The  inclusion  of  comments  made  years  apart  and 
in  different  moods  sometimes  interfered  a  little  with  the  unity 
and  consistency  of  the  essays,  but  it  added  greatly  to  their 
suggestiveness  and  human  interest.  Lowell's  essays  are, 
indeed,  the  personal  comments  of  a  delightful,  wrhimsical, 
sympathetic  man.  Other  essays  are  better  for  the  beginner 
in  search  of  biographical  information  and  systematic  critical 
analysis,  but  to  the  student  who  already  knows  the  author 
under  discussion,  Lowell's  rambling  treatment  is  wonderfully 
stimulating. 

Some  of  the  earlier  miscellaneous  essays  are  contained  in 
the  volume  of  Fireside  Travels  (1864),  and  a  few  others  are 
included  in  the  later  collections.  The  best  are  the  shorter 
personal  papers,  such  as  "  Cambridge  Thirty  Years  Ago," 
reminiscent  of  the  author's  boyhood  days,  and  "  My  Garden 
Acquaintance,"  a  delightfully  informal  nature  essay.  After 
his  death  Lowell's  letters  were  collected  and  edited  by  his 
friend,  Charles  Eliot  Norton.  Xo  American,  perhaps,  has 
been  a  more  charming  letter  writer,  and  for  one  who  would 
really  know  Lowell  this  collection  is  the  best  introduction 
to  his  life  and  work. 

The  reader  of  Lowell  finds  certain  peculiarities  in  both  the 
verse  and  the  prose  which  result,  as  has  been  said,  from  his 
pleasingly  whimsical  personality.  In  the  work  which  is  in 
tentionally  humorous  he  never  seems  to  know  when  to  stop. 
Often  he  continues  until  the  effect  is  weakened,  not  because 
the  jokes  are  bad,  but  because  there  are  too  many  of  them. 
More  serious  is  the  fact  that  throughout  life,  but  especially 
in  his  early  and  middle  years,  he  found  it  hard  to  keep  the 
same  tone  throughout  a  poem  or  an  essay.  In  the  most 
earnest  treatment  of  the  most  serious  subjects  he  will  sud 
denly  digress  to  introduce  a  clever  pun  or  to  turn  a  striking 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         167 

phrase.1  This  is,  fortunately,  more  rare  in  the  poems  than 
in  the  prose,  though  when  it  occurs  in  the  former  it  is  of  course 
a  greater  blemish.  The  reader  who  has  really  come  to  know 
Lowell  through  a  study  of  his  biography  and  his  letters  not 
only  excuses  but  enjoys  these  peculiarities,  as  we  enjoy  any 
distinctive  and  personal  quality  in  a  friendly  letter.  The  cas 
ual  reader  is  likely  to  be  bewildered  by  them,  and  to  get  the 
erroneous  idea  that  they  indicate  lack  of  earnest  purpose  and 
logical  consistency  of  thought.  —€-t 

There  is  no  doubt  about  Lowell's  position  in  American 
literary  history.  As  the  first  editor  and  in  a  sense  the  creator 
of  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  he  performed  a  unique  service 
for  American  letters.  As  author  of  the  most  successful 
American  political  satire,  he  had  great  influence  on  the  thought 
of  his  time.  Later,  as  teacher  and  as  literary  critic,  he  helped 
to  promote  the  appreciation  of  classic  literature  in  America. 

1  Lowell  punned  on  a  familiar  New  England  phrase  and  on  the 
name  of  a  prominent  advocate  of  secession,  Governor  Pickens,  when 
he  entitled  one  of  his  most  earnest  political  essays  "The  Pickens  and 
Stealin's  Rebellion."  In  the  essay  on  Milton  he  says  of  some  com 
mentator,  "He  tramples  out  the  last  spark  of  cheerfulness  with  the 
broad,  damp  foot  of  a  hippopotamus."  In  the  Fireside  Travels 
he  writes,  "Milton  is  the  only  man  who  has  got  much  poetry  out 
of  a  cataract  —  and  that  was  a  cataract  in  his  eye."  Sometimes 
his  punning  allusions  were  too  far-fetched  for  any  but  the  learned. 
In  one  of  his  critical  essays  he  wrote,  "To  every  commentator  who 
has  wantonly  tampered  with  the  text,  or  obscured  it  with  his  inky 
cloud  of  paraphrase,  we  feel  inclined  to  apply  the  quadrisyllable 
name  of  the  brother  of  Agis,  King  of  Sparta."  It  is  said  to  have 
taken  his  classical  colleagues  on  the  Harvard  faculty  some  days  of 
research  to  discover  that  the  name  of  the  Spartan  referred  to  was 
Kinlnmidas.  It  is  impossible  by  quoting  these  sayings  to  give  the 
impression  thai  they  produce  in  the  context.  The  worst  —  or  if 
one  has  learned  to  enjoy  them,  the  best  —  of  the  matter  is  that  they 
turn  up  in  the  most  unexpected  places.  They  illustrate  the  habit 
of  Lowell's  mind  which  made  his  conversation,  as  a  lady  visitor  once 
said,  "like  fireworks." 


168    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


While  minister  to  England,  he  did  more  than  any  other  man 
has  done  to  continue  the  work  that  Irving  began  of  creating 
a  better  feeling  between  English  and  American  men  of  letters. 
As  to  the  permanency  of  his  own  writings  there  is  more  ques 
tion.  The  Biglow  Papers  seem  sure  of  their  place,  and  the 
Vision  of  Sir  Launfal  and  a  few  others  promise  to  be  popu 
lar  for  a  long  time 
to  come.  Of  the 
other  writings,  both 
prose  and  verse,  it 
may  safely  be  said 
that  they  will  be 
read  with  profit  and 
pleasure  by  all  who 
have  come  to  know 
and  admire  the  au 
thor's  personality. 

Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe. — MRS.  STOWE 
had  many  associa 
tions  with  the  Bos 
ton  and  Cambridge 
group,  though  she 
belongs  rather  to  Con 
necticut  than  to  Mas 
sachusetts.  She  was 

born  in  Connecticut  in  1811,  the  daughter  of  the  Reverend 
Lyman  Beecher,  a  famous  clergyman,  and  the  sister  of  a 
still  more  famous  clergyman,  the  Reverend  Henry  Ward 
Beecher.  She  lived  in  Boston,  then  in  Cincinnati,  where  she 
was  married  to  Professor  Stowe,  later  in  Brunswick,  Maine, 
Andover,  Massachusetts,  and  finally  at  Hartford,  Connect 
icut.  Mrs.  Stowe  was  the  author  of  many  works,  among 


Mrs.  Stowe  as  a  young  woman. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


169 


TXCLE  TOM'S  CABIN; 


LIFE    AMONG    THE    LOWLY. 


HAKl'.lKT    1!KK<  UK!:    sluWK. 


them  two  stories  of  New  England  life,  Oldtown  Folks,  and 
T he  M i  Ulster's 
Wooing,  which  are 
especially  good; 
yet  she  is  always 
remembered  in 
connection  with  one 
book,  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin.  This  was 
written  shortly 
after  she  had  re 
moved  from  Cin 
cinnati  to  Maine, 
and  was  first  pub 
lished  in  1851-1852 
as  a  serial  in  a 
Washington  paper. 
During  her  resi 
dence  in  Cincin 
nati  Mrs.  Stowe 
had  seen  some 
thing  of  slavery 
across  the  river, 
and  she  was  in 
clined  to  do  fuller 
justice  to  the  pleas 
ant  aspects  of  the 
system  and  to  be  less 
of  the  abolitionists.1 


BOSTON: 
JOHN  P.  JEWETI  4  COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND,    OHIO: 
JEWETT,  PBOCTOR  i  TTOBTHISGTOS 
1S52.    . 


Title-page    to    first    edition    of    Uncle    Tom's 
Cabin. 


bitter  in  her  sectionalism  than  most 
Public  feeling  had  grown  so  intense, 


1  In  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  the  greater  number  of  the  slave  holders 
are  represented  as  being  humane,  and  as  treating  their  slaves  as 
well  as  circumstances  permitted.  The  most  brutal  man  and  the 
woman  with  the  most  unreasonable  race  prejudice  are  Northerners. 
The  author  had  found  that  in  private  conversation  friends  in  the 


170     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


Harriet  Beecher  Stowc. 


however,  that  her  book  aroused  bitter  resentment  at  the 
South,  while  at  the  North  it  was  hailed  as  an  effec 
tive  weapon  against 
slavery.  It  had  an  im 
mediate  success  that  has 
probably  been  equaled  by 
that  of  no  other  American 
novel,  and  it  attracted 
almost  as  much  atten 
tion  abroad  as  at  home. 
At  first  it  was  often  char 
acterized  as  a  campaign 
document,  and  its  suc 
cess  was  ascribed  to  its 
timeliness  rather  than  to 
its  literary  merit.  After 
sixty  years  it  is  evident 

that  the  book  has  qualities  of  its  own  which  give  it  per 
manency.1  Technically  it  has  many  defects  —  sensation- 
South  admitted  and  regretted  the  evils  of  slavery,  and  she  was 
quite  unprepared  for  the  storm  of  opposition  that  her  book  aroused 
at  the  South.  On  the  contrary,  she  expected  that  her  abolitionist 
friends  would  be  dissatisfied  because  her  presentation  was  not 
scathing  enough.  This  undoubtedly  shows  that  she  was  more 
severe  than  she  realized,  but  it  also  indicates  the  rapidity  with  which 
North  and  South  were  arraying  themselves  against  each  other. 
It  is  quite  possible  to  conceive  that  most  things  in  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin  might  have  been  written  a  few  years  earlier  by  a  Southerner, 
and  have  aroused  no  particular  feeling. 

1  Not  only  did  the  story  have  almost  as  great  a  vogue  in  England 
as  in  America,  but  it  was  translated  into  many  languages,  and  is 
still  one  of  the  American  books  with  which  European  readers  are 
familiar.  The  melodramatic  stage  version  is  usually  spoken  of  with 
a  smile,  but  after  all  it  is  one  of  the  things  which  every  one  sees.  The 
writer  has  seen  billboards  bearing  the  familiar  figures  of  Uncle  Tom 
and  Little  Eva  in  Oxford  and  in  Rome ;  and  these  characters  are 
doubtless  now  appearing  on  the  stage  in  even  more  remote  places, 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT        171 

alism,  poor  organization  of  plot,  and  other  weaknesses  that 
are  in  part  explained  by  the  author's  limitations,  in  part 
by  the  fact  that  she  wrote  it  in  odd  moments  stolen  from 
her  household  duties.  But  with  all  its  faults  it  has  a 
human  interest  and  an  essential  truth  to  the  facts  of  human 
nature  that  keep  it  alive  while  the  animosities  of  the  sectional 
struggle  are  being  forgotten. 

MISCELLANEOUS  NEW  ENGLAND  WRITERS 

Literary  Conditions  in  New  England.  —  Transcendental 
ism  and  abolitionism  were  special  manifestations  of  the  in 
tellectual  awakening  of  Xew  England.  Such  important 
movements  necessarily  touched  directly  or  indirectly  almost 
every  thinking  man;  yet  many  of  the  New  England  writers, 
among  them  three  of  the  greatest,  Longfellow,  Hawrthorne, 
and  Holmes,  were  not  especially  devoted  to  either,  but  re 
sponded  to  the  awakening  in  other  ways. 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow.  —  LONGFELLOW  was  a 
descendant  of  John  and  Priscilla  Alden,  who  came  in  the  May 
flower,  and  of  other  early  settlers  of  Massachusetts.  He  was 
born  in  1807  in  Portland,  Maine,1  where  his  father  was  a 
prominent  lawyer.  He  was  graduated  at  Bowdoin  College 
at  the  age  of  eighteen,2  and  his  scholarship  and  literary  prom- 

where  the  interest  they  arouse  is  surely  not  due  to  any  concern  over 
the  American  political  troubles  of  sixty  years  ago. 

1  Maine  was  at  this  time  not  a  state,  but  a  province  of  Massa 
chusetts. 

2  Various  stories  of  Longfellow's  boyhood  hint  at  qualities  of  the 
man  that   are  reflected  in   his  works.      He  was  always  bright   and 
honorable.      He  played  mostly  with  girls,  and  remained   in   public 
school  but  one  week  because  the  boys  were  too  rough.     There  is 
also  a  tradition  that  lie  ne\er  shot  off  a  gun  but  once,  and  that  on 
Fourth  of  July's  he  used  to  put  cotton  in  his  ears  to  keep  out  the 
noise  of  fire  crackers. 


172     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


Henry  Wadswcrth  Longfellow. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT        173 

ise  so  impressed  one  of  the  trustees  of  this  institution  that  he 
was  at  once  offered  a  professorship  of  modern  languages  if  he 
would  go  abroad  and  fit  himself  for  the  position.  He  had 
read  much  as  a  boy,  and  while  an  undergraduate  had  pub- 


The  Longfellow  house  at  Portland,  Maine. 

lished  a  number  of  poems  in  a  prominent  magazine.  He 
studied  for  three  years  in  France,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Germany, 
and  then  returned  to  his  duties  in  Howdoin.  His  teaching 
was  so  successful  that  in  1834  he  was  chosen  to  the  Smith 
professorship  at  Harvard — the  most  important  professor 
ship  of  modern  languages  in  America.  He  went  abroad  again 


174     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

to  study,  devoting  himself  this  time  to  the  languages  of  north 
ern  Europe,  and  visiting  Sweden,  Denmark,  Holland,  Ger 
many,  and  Switzerland.  Mrs.  Longfellow,  to  whom  he  had 
been  married  at  Portland  in  1831,  died  in  Holland  after  a 
short  illness.  On  his  return  he  took  up  his  work  at  Harvard 
and  engaged  rooms  in  the  famous  Craigie  House,1  at  Cam 
bridge,  which  has  since  been  associated  with  his  name.  In 


Craigie  House  —  Longfellow's  homo  at  Cambridge.      Side  view  from  the 

grounds. 

1843  he  was  married  to  Miss  Frances  E.  Appleton,  whom  he 
had  met  in  Switzerland  shortly  after  the  death  of  his  first 
wife.  Miss  Appleton's  father  bought  Craigie  House  as  a 
wedding  gift,  and  Longfellow  resided  there  continuously 
until  his  death  in  1882,  except  for  two  or  three  brief  visits 
abroad.  His  geniality  and  his  domestic  tastes  drew  to  him  a 

1  This  fine  colonial  mansion  was  once  Washington's  headquarters 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  grouped  about  it  are  many  local 
traditions  and  associations. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         175 

circle  of  close  friends,  which  included  all  the  greater  New 
England  men  of  letters,  as  well  as  others  less  famous.  The 
most  important  events  of  these  later  years  were  his  resigna 
tion  from  the  Harvard  professorship  in  1854  l  that  he  might 
devote  himself  wholly  to  literature,  and  the  tragic  death  of 
Mrs.  Longfellow  in  1861.2 

Longfellow's  literary  career  may  be  divided  into  three 
periods,  of  which  the  first  two  are  relatively  unimportant. 
During  his  undergraduate  course  at  Bowdoin  he  wrote  mostly 
in  verse.  The  state  of  American  poetry  was  such  that  his 
juvenile  poems  attracted  much  attention  when  they  were 
published,  but  they  are  now  of  value  chiefly  to  the  student 
of  the  author's  development.  During  the  second  period, 
which  covers  twelve  or  fifteen  years,  from  the  time  when 
he  first  went  abroad  until  he  took  up  his  duties  at  Harvard, 
he  devoted  himself  mostly  to  prose.  His  only  important 
work  in  verse  during  this  time  was  a  translation,  from  the 
Spanish,  of  Coplas  dc  M<n/r/</nt\  published  in  1833.  During 
this  period  he  wrote,  besides  reviews  and  articles  on  literary 
subjects,  two  longer  prose  works,  Ovtre-Mer  and  Hyperion, 
which  grew,  respectively,  out  of  his  first  and  his  second  visits 
to  Europe.  The  former  shows  somewhat  the  influence  of 
Irving.  The  Sketch  Book  had  been  his  favorite  reading  as 
a  boy,  and  the  fact  that  he  spent  some  time  in  Spain,  which 
Irving  was  just  endearing  to  the  public  through  the  Alhainbra 
and  other  works,  may  have  tended  to  make  the  resemblance 
stronger.  Outre-Mer  shows  painstaking  labor,  and  contains 
good  descriptive  passages,  but  it  is  a  trifle  thin  and  artificial, 

1  His  successor,  as  has  ;iliv;uly  been  noted,  was  James  Russell 
Lowell. 

2  Mrs.   Longfellow   was  scaled    in    the  library   with  her  children 
when  she  let  fall  a  drop  of  burning  sealing  wax  on  the  light  dress 
which  she  wore.     Before  the  flames  could  be  extinguished  she  was 
fatally  burned. 


176    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

as  the  imitative  work  of  a  young  writer  is  likely  to  be.  Hy 
perion,  published  fourteen  years  later,  is  entirely  different. 
Longfellow  gave  this  work  the  subtitle  of  "  A  Romance," 
and  it  is  really  a  thinly  disguised  account  of  his  travels  in 
Germany  and  Switzerland  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife, 
and  of  his  meeting  with  Miss  Appleton.  When  it  was  first 
published,  some  critics  thought  the  personal  references  in 
poor  taste,  and  Miss  Appleton  and  her  family  are  said  to 
have  been  for  a  time  displeased.  A  more  serious  fault  was 
a  turgid  style,  probably  derived  in  part  from  the  study  of 
German  romantic  tales,  and  a  sentimental  and  distorted 
view  of  life  which  was  characteristic  of  Longfellow  only 
during  this  troubled  period,  if  indeed  it  was  really  charac 
teristic  of  his  best  self  then.  His  only  other  prose  work  of 
importance  was  Kaoanagh,  a  romance  of  New  England  village 
life,  published  ten  years  later,  in  1849. 

Soon  after  his  removal  to  Cambridge,  while  stirred  by  his 
recent  bereavement,  his  new  love,  and  the  anxieties  that 
naturally  came  from  the  beginning  of  new  duties,  Longfellow 
again  turned  to  verse  and  wrote  a  number  of  short  moralizing 
poems.  These  were  published  in  the  volume  Voices  of  ike 
Nig  Jit,1  in  1839,  and  were  much  more  favorably  received  than 
the  prose  volume  of  the  same  year,  Hyperion.  The  return 
to  verse  in  Voices  of  the  Night  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
author's  last  and  greatest  literary  period.  For  the  remaining 
forty-three  years  of  his  life  he  was  preeminently  a  poet. 

1  The  poems  retained  from  this  collection  under  the  heading 
Voices  of  the  Night  in  later  editions  of  the  poems  are :  the 
"Prelude,"  "Hymn  to  the  Night,"  "A  Psalm  of  Life,"  "The  Reaper 
and  the  Flowers,"  "The  Light  of  Stars,"  "Footsteps  of  Angels," 
"Flowers,"  "The  Beleaguered  City,"  "  Midnight  Mass  for  the  Dying 
Year."  Almost  every  one  is  generally  known.  At  first  the  author 
called  several  of  these  "Psalms,"  but  he  retained  this  title  for  but 
one,  the  "Psalm  of  Life." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


177 


Longfellow  wrote  prolifically,  and  only  a  few  of  his  many 
volumes  need  be  specifically  mentioned.  Next  after  Voices 
oj  the  Night  he  published  Ballads  and  other  Poems  (1841), 
the  nature  of  which  was  probably  suggested  by  his  study  of 
the  old  English  and  German  ballads.  His  Poems  on  Slavery 
were  written  on  shipboard  while  he  was  returning  from  a 


The  Wayside  Inn,  Sudbury. 

third  trip  to  Europe,  and  were  published  in  1842.  Evan- 
geline,  his  first  long  narrative  poem,  appeared  in  1847, 
Hiawatha  in  1855,  the  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish  in  1858, 
the  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn,  a  collection  of  stories,1  in  1863 

1  This  embodies,  again,  the  conception  of  a  group  of  stories  told 
by  different  members  of  a  party.  The  place  was  supposed  to  be 
the  old  inn  at  Sudbury,  to  which  parties  from  Cambridge  often  made 
excursions.  The  persons  who  are  represented  as  telling  the  tales 
were  well-known  characters  in  the  social  and  literary  life  of  Boston 
and  Cambridge. 


178     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

and  1872.  The  trilogy  of  Christus :  a  Mystery,  made  up  of 
the  Divine  Tragedy,  the  Golden  Legend,  and  the  New  England 
Tragedies,  appeared  in  1872,  though  the  second  part,  the 
Golden  Legend,  had  been  published  separately  twenty  years 
earlier.1  A  verse  translation  of  Dante,  on  which  the  poet 
worked  for  distraction  after  the  death  of  his  wife,2  was  fin 
ished  in  1867.  Michael  Angela,  a  long  poem  in  dramatic 
form,  which  he  had  had  in  hand  for  some  years,  but  had  not 
finished  to  his  satisfaction,  was  issued  after  his  death.  His 
other  volumes  contain  some  dramatic  attempts  and  a  large 
number  of  shorter  poems. 

With  the  publication  of  Voices  of  the  Night  it  became  evi 
dent  that  Longfellow  was  a  poet  who  could  touch  the  popular 
heart.  These  short  "  Psalms  "  deal  with  universal  human 
emotions  and  experiences.  They  are  sweet,  and  hopeful, 
and  encouraging.  They  are  written  in  simple  meters  and 
with  simple  imagery  that  appeals  to  all.  Many  of  his 
most  popular  later  poems  show  the  same  characteristics. 
He  was  preeminently  the  poet  of  childhood,  and  do 
mestic  affection,  and  of  the  common  joys  and  trials  that 
come  to  the  young  and  to  those  whose  lives  have  fallen 
in  quiet  places.  He  also  showed  skill  in  the  handling  of 
simple  narrative.  His  ballads,  and  many  of  the  Tales 
of  a  Wayside  Inn,  especially  those  in  which  there  is 
no  strong  dramatic  element,  are  effective,  and  Miles 

1  The  three  parts  of  Christus  are  supposed  to  show  forth  respec 
tively  the  spirit  of  the  ancient,  the  medieval,  and  the  modern  world. 
The  Divine  Tragedy  is  an  account  of  Christ's  life  and  ministry,  the 
Golden  Legend  the  retelling  of  a  medieval  tale,  and  the  New  England 
Tragedies,  "John  Endicott"  and  "Giles  Corey,"  are  dramas  with 
the  scene  laid  in  early  New  England.    .In  some  ways  Christus  is 
the  most  earnest  and  ambitious  of  the  poet's  works,  but  the  only 
part  in  which  he  was  fairly  successful  was  the  Golden  Legend. 

2  It  will  be  remembered  that  Bryant,   when  suffering  from  a 
similar  bereavement,  translated  Homer. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         179 

Standish  is  excellently  done.1  Evangeline  also  makes  a 
strong  appeal  to  many  readers,  some  of  whom  rank  it  as 
his  masterpiece,  though  the  story  was  not  an  easy  one  to 
tell.2  The  narrative  element  in  Hiawatha  is  good,  though 
most  readers  probably  remember  the  separate  incidents  and 
the  description  rather  than  the  story  as  a  whole.3 

Longfellow  was  a  painstaking  literary  worker.  His  studies, 
particularly  those  in  the  literatures  of  modern  and  medieval 
Europe,  made  him  acquainted  with  many  metrical  forms, 
and  he  used  a  variety  of  these  in  his  own  work.  His  experi 
ments  with  the  dactyllic  hexameter,  the  verse  of  the  Iliad  and 
the  ^Eneid,  in  Evangeline  and  with  the  unrhymed  trochaic 
tetrameter  in  Hiawatha,4  in  particular,  called  forth  much 
comment,  and  although  the  critics  point  out  technical 
objections  to  the  use  of  both  these  measures,  the  voice  of 

1  Perhaps  Longfellow  did  especially  well  with  this  poem  because  it 
deals  with  his  own  ancestors.     Priscilla's  answer,  and  some  other 
details,  were  traditions  in  the  family. 

2  In  order  to  show  the  heroine's  devotion  the  poet  has  made  her 
continue  the  search  for  her  lover  throughout  life,  while  the  lover 
himself  becomes  disheartened  and  gives  over  his  attempts  to  find 
her.     It  is  hard  to  see  how  the  plot  could  have  been  managed  better. 
If  both  lovers  had  spent  their  lives  in  active  search,  the  tale  would 
have  lost  its  idyllic  character,  and  have  become  a  story  of  adventure. 
As  it  stands  now,  however,  the  cynical  reader  is  sometimes  tempted 
tojask  if  Gabriel  is  worthy  of  being  hunted  for.     There  is  an  anec 
dote  which  relates  that  the  plot  was  told  to  Longfellow  and  Haw 
thorne  at  the  same  time,  and  that  the  latter  at  once  relinquished 
all   claim   to   it.     Hawthorne   may  have   seen   that   the   incident, 
though  touching,  offered  practical  difficulties  to  the  romancer. 

3  There  had  been  many  narrative  poems  with  Indian  heroes,  all 
of  which  had  led  to  profitless  discussion  as  to  whether  the  Indian 
characters    were    truthfully    portrayed.     Longfellow   avoided    this 
kind  of  criticism  by  writing,  not  of  individual  Indians,  but  of  the 
myths  and  traditions  of  the  ract-. 

4  This  is  the  meter  of  the  Finnish  national  epic,  the  Kalevala,  and 
was  adopted  because  Longfellow  thought  it  especially  suited  to  a 
poem  which  dealt  with  th<-  belief's  of  a  primitive  people. 


180     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

popular  approval  has  been  in  his  favor.  While  he  was  not 
one  of  the  greatest  nineteenth-century  artists  in  verse,  he 
knew  how  to  write  poems  that  sing  themselves  into  the  heart, 
and  occasionally,  as  in  "  My  Lost  Youth,"  he  produced 
strangely  haunting  melodies.  His  sense  of  form  led  him  to 
give  balance  and  proportion  to  his  shorter  poems.  He  was 
especially  happy  in  a  few  like  "  The 
Rainy  Day,"  and  "The  Arrow  and 
the  Song,"  in  which  a  stanza  of  lit 
eral  description  and  a  stanza  of 
figurative  description  are  followed 
by  a  stanza  of  application. 

Longfellow's  limitations  as  a  poet 
came  largely  from  his  character  and 
mental  habits.  He  was  a  reader 
of  books  rather  than  an  observer 
of  nature  and  of  men,  and  his  talent 
was  imitative  rather  than  original. 
He  was  greatly  indebted  to  other 
poets,  particularly  to  those  of  con 
tinental  Europe,  both  for  ideas  and 
for  hints  of  form,1  and  his  best 

descriptions,  such,  for  example,  as  those  in  Evangeline,  are  of 
scenes  which  he  never  visited,  but  of  which  he  knew  through 
the  descriptions  of  others.  His  temperament  and  his  habits 


Longfellow  in  1860. 


1  Poe  created  a  small  sensation  in  the  literary  world  by  accusing 
Longfellow  of  plagiarism  ;  but  Poe  denned  plagiarism  as  any  degree 
of  indebtedness,  and  he  interpreted  any  similarity  as  proving  in 
debtedness.  Longfellow  was  the  soul  of  honor,  in  literary  as  in 
other  matters,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  he  never  intentionally  pub 
lished  a  line  that  was  not  legitimately  his  own.  But  although  his 
indebtedness  is  legitimate,  it  is  very  great  —  greater  than  most  of 
his  contemporaries  realized,  because  they  were  not  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  foreign  poets  whom  he  knew  best. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         181 

also  prevented  him  from  being  much  influenced  by  the  great 
movements  of  the  day,  and  from  expressing  himself  with 
force.  His  poems  on  slavery  leave  no  doubt  of  his  position 
on  this  question,  and  the  "  Building  of  the  Ship  "  leaves  no 
doubt  of  his  patriotism,  but  both  are  a  trifle  thin  and  aca 
demic,  and  though  technically  more  perfect  than  Whittier's 
fervid  utterances,  they  are  far  weaker.  The  poems  on  slavery 
were  written  relatively  early,  when  his  interest  chanced  to 
be  directed  to  the  abolition  cause.  The  later  stages  of  the 
struggle  seem  to  have  concerned  him  little,  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  Transcendental  movement,  and,  more 
strangely,  of  the  great  New  England  awakening  in  art.  In 
his  cleanness  of  thought  and  his  moral  ideals  Longfellow  was 
typical  of  New  England,  but  in  other  respects  he  was  less 
representative  of  his  community  and  his  age  than  any  other 
of  the  greater  American  poets.  To  the  two  peculiarities 
already  mentioned,  —  his  lack  of  originality  and  his  failure 
to  enter  into  the  intellectual  life  about  him,  —  is  due  the 
quality  of  his  philosophy  which  has  led  many  persons  to 
characterize  it  as  "  commonplace."  "  Into  each  life  some 
rain  must  fall,"  "  As  one  by  one  thy  hopes  depart,  Be  reso 
lute  and  calm,"  "  Learn  to  labor  and  to  wait,"  are  observa 
tions  and  exhortations  that  are  true  and  wholesome,  and  that 
come  to  almost  every  one  at  some  period  of  his  life  with  tonic 
forge;  but  to  the  man  who  has  felt  the  doubt  and  despair 
which  modern  life  sometimes  brings  they  are  likely  to  seem 
inadequate. 

These  limitations  of  the  poet  may  at  first  seem  serious,  yet 
to  recognize  them  is  only  to  clear  the  way  for  the  truest  ap 
preciation  of  his  work.  Like  other  important  poets  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  he  attempted  to  write  dramas  without 
having  the  dramatic  gift;  but  with  this  exception  he  usually 
confined  himself  to  work  for  which  he  was  fitted,  and  it  is 


182    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

only  fair  to  go  to  him  for  the  things  which  he  really  offers  — 
not  for  profound  philosophy  or  novel  ideas  on  social  problems, 
but  for  hopeful,  helpful  encouragement  in  meeting  the  or 
dinary  troubles  of  life.  He  has  been  and  continues  to  be  the 
most  popular  of  American  poets,  at  home  and  abroad.  He 
is  widely  read  in  England,  and  his  works  have  been  trans 
lated  into  most  languages  spoken  in  civilized  lands..  Most 
persons  except  the  very  precocious  and  the  very  priggish 
have,  at  least  at  some  time  in  their  lives,  found  consolation 
and  inspiration  in  his  poems;  and  even  those  who  later  feel 
them  to  be  commonplace  can  recall  and  enjoy  the  impression 
that  they  once  made. 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne.  —  HAWTHORNE  *•  was  born  in  1804 
at  Salem,  where  his  family  had  lived  since  the  early  seven 
teenth  century.  His  earliest  American  ancestors  were  men 
of  importance,  and  the  one  who  most  appealed  to  the  ro 
mancer's  imagination  was  one  of  the  witch  judges.  His  father 
and  grandfather  were  sea  captains  —  sterling  and  respected 
citizens,  but  not  men  of  prominence.  The  father  died  when 
Nathaniel  was  four  years  old,  and  the  mother,  keeping  her 
widowhood  in  a  manner  less  rare  then  than  now,  lived  a 
wholly  secluded  life.2  In  this  peculiar  home  environment 
Nathaniel  grew  up  with  retiring  habits,  and  an  accidental 
lameness  which  for  some  years  kept  him  from  boyish  sports 
may  have  helped  to  increase  the  tendency  to  solitude  which 
characterized  him  throughout  life.  The  family  had  some 
property  interests  in  Maine,  and  he  lived  there  for  a  time, 
and  attended  Bowdoin  College,  from  which  he  was  graduated 

1  The  family  name  was  Hathorne.     Nathaniel  introduced  the 
"w"  while  in  his  senior  year  at  college. 

2  It  is  said  that  she  kept  almost  wholly  to  her  room,  and  that  for 
over  thirty  years  —  until  her  first  grandchild  won  her  from  her 
solitude  —  she  did  not  even  sit  at  the  table  with  the  family. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         183 


Nathaniel  Hawthorne. 


184     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


in  1825.  Among  his  fellow  students  in  college  were  Long 
fellow  and  Franklin  Pierce,  the  latter  a  close  friend. 

After  his  graduation  from  Bowdoin  Hawthorne  adopted 
no  profession,  but  for  twelve  or  fourteen  years  lived  very 
quietly  with  his  mother  at  Salem,  doing  nothing,  as  inquisitive 
neighbors  thought,  but  in  reality  reading  and  writing.1  For 
a  few  months  in  1836  he  edited  a  "  Magazine  of  Useful 

and  Entertaining  Knowledge  "  in 
Boston,  and  a  little  later  friends 
secured  for  him  the  position  of 
weigher  and  gauger  in  the  Boston 
customhouse.  He  had  already 
become  engaged  to  Miss  Sophie 
Peabody  of  Salem.  Miss  Pea- 
body  was  an  ardent  Transcen- 
dentalist,  and  it  may  have  been 
through  her  influence  that  on  the 
loss  of  his  position  in  1841  he 
joined  the  Brook  Farm  com 
munity.  He  experienced  the  en 
thusiasms  which  amateur  farmers 

and  gardeners  are  likely  to  feel  at  first,  but  he  soon  came 
to  the  conclusion  which  he  expressed  in  a  letter  to  Miss 
Peabody  :  "  Oh,  labor  is  the  curse  of  the  world,  and  nobody 
can  meddle  with  it  without  becoming  proportionably  bruti- 
fied."  He  left  Brook  Farm  in  1842,  was  married,  and 
rented  the  Old  Manse,  at  Concord,  where  he  lived  for  four 

1  Some  early  biographical  sketches  of  Hawthorne  tell  absurd  tales 
of  this  period  of  his  life.  He  has  been  represented  as  a  morbid 
recluse  who  never  went  out  of  doors  by  day,  and  who  never  looked 
on  the  sunshine.  All  such  tales  are  wholly  without  foundation. 
He  lived  in  a  very  retired  fashion,  seeing  nothing  of  his  neighbors 
and  taking  his  rambles  in  the  woods  and  by  the  sea  alone,  but  there 
was  nothing  mysterious  about  him. 


Hawthorne  as  a  young  man. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         185 

years.  Friends  again  secured  for  him  a  government  posi 
tion,  this  time  as  surveyor  of  customs  in  his  native 
town.1  With  the  change  of  political  parties  in  1864 
he  lost  his  office,  and  after  brief  residences  in  two  or  three 
places  bought  of  Bronson  Alcott  The  Wayside  at  Con 
cord.  In  1852  he  wrote  the  campaign  biography  of  his 
friend  Pierce,  who  was  now  a  candidate  for  President.  The 
next  year  Pierce  repaid  the  favor,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
time,  by  appointing  him  to  the  most  lucrative  United  States 
consulate,  that  at  Liverpool.  He  held  this  position  for 
four  years,  and  remained  abroad,  in  Italy  and  in  England, 
for  nearly  three  years  more.  On  his  return  to  America  in 
1860  he  again  took  up  his  residence  at  The  Wayside,  but  his 
health  was  already  failing,  and  he  died  in  1864. 

Hawthorne's  important  literary  work  is  of  two  sorts  — 
the  short  tales  and  sketches,  and  the  romances.  The  former 
were  produced  mostly  before  and  the  latter  mostly  after 
1850.  The  greater  number  of  his  sketches  and  tales  for 
adults  are  contained  in  three  volumes,  the  Twice  Told  Tales, 
the  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse,  and  the  Snow  Image  and 
other  Twice  Told  Tales.  In  1828  he  published  Famhawe, 
an  unimportant  juvenile  romance  of  college  life,  which  he 
soon  tried  to  suppress.  \Vith  the  exception  of  this  and  of  a 
Peter  Parley  book  which  he  prepared  for  Goodrich  he  wrote 
little  except  shorter  pieces  during  his  long  years  of  seclusion 


1  Students  should  be  careful  not  to  confuse  Hawthorne's  two 
customhouse  appointments.  The  first  was  to  a  subordinate  posi 
tion  in  the  large  office  at  Boston.  Here  his  duties  were  to  keep 
tally  on  the  cargo  of  vessels,  counting  casks,  or  wheelbarrow  loads 
of  coal  or  salt,  as  they  were  unloaded.  His  second  position,  which 
has  a  more  important  relation  lo  his  literary  career,  was  as  surveyor 
of  customs  —  a  much  higher  grade,  but  in  the  smaller  office  at  Salem. 
Here  his  duties  were  more  purely  executive,  and  were  largely  per 
formed  at  his  desk. 


186    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


187 


at  Salem.  He  prepared  two  or  three  collections  of  stories  for 
which  he  could  find  no  publisher,  though  he  sold  a  number 
of  separate  tales  to  magazines,  and  to  Goodrich  for  use  in  the 
Token,  the  best  of  the  literary  annuals.  These  appeared 
over  different  signatures,  among  them  "  Oberon,"  and  "  The 
Author  of  the  Gentle  Boy  "  —  none  of  them  over  his  own 
name.  Although  many  of  them  are  now  ranked  among  his 
best  work,  they  were  so  little  regarded  that  no  publisher 
would  risk  a 
collection.  At 
last,  in  1837,  a 
friend  gave  a 
financial  guar 
antee,  unknown 
to  the  author, 
which  resulted 
in  the  issue  of 
the  Twice  Told 
Tales.1  The 
Mosses  were 
mostly  written 
while  the  au 
thor  resided  in 

the  Old  Manse  at  Concord,  and  were  collected  in  1846  just 
before  he  took  up  his  duties  in  the  Salem  customhouse. 
The  Snow  Image  and  other  Twice  Told  Tales  was  issued  in 
1851,  after  he  had  turned  to  longer  romances,  but  the  tales 
of  which  it  was  composed  had  been  written  earlier.  Haw 
thorne  was  also  the  author  of  several  collections  for  chil- 

1  The  title  of  course  has  reference  to  the   fact   that  the   tales 

had  been  told  before,  in  magazines  and  in  the   Token.  A  second 

edition  of  the  Twice  Told  Tales,  greatly  enlarged,  was  published 
in  1842. 


Hawthorne's  study  in  "  The  Wayside." 


188    AMERICAN  LITEEATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

dren.  Three  volumes,  Grandfather's  Chair,  Famous  Old 
People,  and  Liberty  Tree,  which  date  from  the  period  of  his 
employment  in  the  Boston  customhouse,  contain  stories  from 
early  New  England  history.  The  Wonder  Book  and  the 
Tanglewood  Tales,  published  in  1851  and  1853  respectively, 
retell  some  of  the  old  classic  myths. 

When  Hawthorne  lost  his  position  in  the  Salem  custom 
house  in  1849  he  began  work  on  another  collection  of  short 
tales.  It  was  on  the  advice  of  his  publisher,  James  T. 
Fields,  that  he  expanded  the  one  which  he  had  chosen  for 
first  place,  the  Scarlet  Letter,  and  issued  it  in  a  volume  by 
itself.1  When  this  appeared  in  the  spring  of  1850  it  was 
received  with  an  enthusiasm  which  had  never  greeted  the 
author's  earlier  work.  From  this  time  Hawthorne  was 
chiefly  a  writer  of  romances.  In  the  period  of  activity  which 
followed  his  sudden  winning  of  popular  favor,  he  wrote  the 
House  of  the  Seven  Gables  (1851)  and  the  Blithedale  Romance 
(1852),  besides  preparing  for  publication  the  Wonder  Book 
and  the  Snow  Image  and  other  Twice  Told  Tales,  already 
mentioned.  Hawthorne  could  write  only  when  conditions 
were  wholly  favorable,  and  during  his  Liverpool  consulate, 
as  during  his  term  in  the  Salem  customhouse,  he  produced 
little  or  nothing;  but  after  his  resignation,  while  he  was  liv 
ing  in  Italy  and  in  England,  he  wrote  his  fourth  important 
romance,  the  Marble  Faun.2  In  his  later  years  his  health 
was  poor,  and  the  fact  that  during  the  troubled  period  of  the 
War  he  was  out  of  sympathy  with  most  of  his  New  England 
associates  on  political  matters  probably  disquieted  him.3 

1  Some  passages  still  remain  in  the  sketch  prefixed  to  the  Scarlet 
Letter  which  show  that  this  was  written  to  introduce,  not  a  romance, 
but  a  number  of  short  pieces. 

2  Published  and  still  known  in  England  as  the  Transformation. 

3  Hawthorne  took  little  interest  in  politics,  less  than  any  other 
prominent  New  England  man  of  letters  except  Longfellow ;   but  he 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT        189 

He  published  Our  Old  Home,  a  volume  of  notes  and  observa 
tions  on  England.  He  also  tried  to  do  something  more  at 
fiction,  and  he  completed  for  the  Atlantic  Monthly  two  serial 
installments  of  the  Dolliver  Romance,  a  work  which  up  to  the 
time  of  his  death  he  still  hoped  to  finish.1 

It  was  Hawthorne's  habit  to  keep  notebooks  in  which  he 
jotted  down  anything  that  might  be  of  use  to  him  in  a  literary 
way.  When  he  traveled  he  often  wrote  detailed  descriptions 
of  persons  and  places  that  he  saw,  and  Our  Old  Home  was 
largely  made  up  of  such  material.  When  he  was  at  home  his 
entries  often  consisted  of  hints  for  stories,  or  occasionally 
of  bits  of  information  gathered  from  reading.  Selections 
from  three  series  of  these  notebooks,  the  American,  the 
English,  and  the  French  and  Italian  have  been  published 
since  his  death,  and  are  interesting  to  the  student  of  his 
character  and  his  literary  habits.2 

The  Twice  Told  Tales,  the  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse,  and 
the  Snow  Image  and  other  Twice  Told  Tales  are  made  up 
partly  of  short  stories,  and  partly  of  descriptive  and  narrative 
sketches  without  plot.  The  short  story  was  not,  as  now, 

was  always  nominally  a  Democrat,  and  as  he  was  abroad  during  the 
important  years  from  1853  to  1860  he  did  not  change  his  views  as 
many  New  England  Democrats  did.  Perhaps  he  would  not  have 
changed  them  anyway.  He  never  cared  for  the  abolition  move 
ment,  and  after  the  secession  of  the  South  he  wrote,  "I  rejoice  that 
the  old  Union  is  smashed." 

1  Four  fragments  of  romances,  some  of   them  dating  to  a  time 
before  the  writing  of  the  Marble  Faun,  have  been  published  since 
the  author's  death.      These  are  the  Ancestral  Footstep,  Dr.  Grim- 
shaw's  Secret,  Septimius  Felton,  and  the  Dolliver  Romance.      All  but 
the  last  named  hud  been  abandoned,  and  are  valuable  only  for  the 
hints  they  give  of  Hawthorne's  methods  of  literary  work. 

2  The  American  Note-Books  are  the  most  important.     The  stu 
dent  will  find  it  interesting  to  go  through  them,  pick  out  the  hints 
for  stories  and  sketches,  and  identify  those  which  the  author  later 
used. 


190     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

regarded  as  a  definite  specialized  form  of  literature,  and  it  is 
probable  that  neither  Irving  nor  Hawthorne  thought  very 
much  of  the  differences  between  their  sketches  and  their 
tales.  Indeed  it  is  perhaps  in  the  sketches  rather  than  in  the 
stories  with  plot  that  Hawthorne's  peculiarly  delicate  art 
best  shows  itself.  To  take  subjects  so  thin  and  devoid  of 
striking  features  as  those  in  "  Sights  from  a  Steeple, "or 
"  Little  Annie's  Ramble,"  or  the  introductory  paper  of  the 
Old  Manse  volume,  and  to  make  from  them  charmingly 
readable  essays  is  more  difficult  than  to  hold  interest  in  a 
story  of  action.  It  is  the  stories,  however,  that  are  natu 
rally  best  known.  In  these,  as  in  the  sketches,  he  succeeds 
in  creating  a  peculiar  "  atmosphere,"  and  often  in  making 
use  of  an  allegorical  suggestiveness  that  is  not  definite  enough 
to  be  really  allegory.1  He  is  especially  fond  of  scenes  from 
colonial  New  England.  The  interest  in  his  best  stories 
frequently  lies  not  so  much  in  the  events  that  happen  as  in 
the  fact  that  a  human  being  is  placed  in  a  peculiar  situation 
with  reference  to  some  moral  problem,  or  to  other  persons.2 
These  stories  based  on  situation  often  involve  some  question 

1  So  many  of  the  stories  illustrate  this  quality  that  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  give  examples.     Notice  the  suggestiveness  in  the  "  Gray 
Champion,"  where  we  are  made  half  to  feel  that  the  old  regicide  is 
a  supernatural  guardian  of  New  England ;    the  symbolism  of  the 
"Minister's  Black  Veil";    the  allegorical  significance,  slightly  more 
definite,  of  the  imperfection  of  the  bride's  cheek  in  the  "Birthmark." 

2  The  hints  in  the  Note-Books  show  that  this  was  the  way  in 
which  he  first  conceived  his  stories.     For  example:    "A  person  to 
be  in  the  possession  of  something  as  perfect  as  mortal  man  has  a 
right  to  demand;   he  tries  to  make  it  better,  and  ruins  it  entirely" 
("The  Birthmark");    "A  person  conscious   that  he  was  soon  to 
die,  the  humor  in  which  he  would  pay  his  last  visit  to  familiar  per 
sons  and  things."     "Dr.  Heidegger's  Experiment"  is  a  study  of 
what  persons  of  a  certain  sort  would  do  if  they  could  renew  their 
youth;    " Rappaccini's  Daughter"   is  a  study  of  a  human  being 
whose  touch  or  breath  is  poison  to  others. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         191 

of  sin;  and  indeed  the  author  seems  to  have  had  an  especial 
interest  in  studying  the  effect  of  sin  on  the  human  soul.  He 
was  not,  like  the  older  theologians,  concerned  with  questions 
of  divine  forgiveness  or  punishment,  and  he  did  not  openly 
condemn  the  sinner  or  plead  for  him;  he  observed  him  in  a 
detached,  impersonal  way,  and  studied  the  effects  of  his  sin 
on  all  who  were  concerned.1  In  this  particular  method  of 
treatment  he  was  far  from  being  a  Puritan,  yet  his  choice  and 
handling  of  literary  material  constantly  reminds  one  that  he 
was  a  direct  descendant  of  the  Puritans.  It  is  almost  impos 
sible  fully  to  understand  him  without  knowing  something  of 
early  New  England. 

Some  of  Hawthorne's  short  prose  tales  are  among  the 
best  produced  in  America,  and  in  writing  them  he  became 
fully  master  of  his  literary  powers;  but  it  was  in  the  romances 
that  his  work  reached  its  culmination.  The  characteristics 
mentioned  in  connection  with  the  short  stories  —  choice  of 
Xew  England  scenes  and  characters,  creation  of  atmosphere, 
half-allegorical  suggestiveness,  study  of  the  effects  of  sin  — 
are  seen  in  these  longer  works.  The  romances  have  few 
characters  —  never  more  than  four  or  five  of  importance  — 
and  interest  centers  in  the  simple  situations  involved.  An 
other  peculiarity  of  Hawthorne's  narrative  method  is  the 
way  in  which  he  analyzes  the  minds  of  his  characters,  telling 
their  secret  thoughts  and  moods  as  freely  as  he  tells  their 
most  open  actions,  yet  never  raising  a  doubt  in  the  reader's 
mind  that  they  thought  and  felt  exactly  as  he  says. 

Hawthorne  often  kept  a  literary  idea  in  mind  for  many 
years  and  it  is  probable  that  he  had  long  planned  to  develop 

1  In  "Ethan  Brand"  the  sin  is  that  of  hard-heartedness  ;  in  "The 
Birthmark"  that  of  overconfidence  in  intellect  and  in  the  power  of 
human  knowledge;  in  " Rappaccini's  Daughter,"  somewhat  sim 
ilarly,  the  sacrifice  of  all  else  to  scientific  knowledge,  etc. 


192     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

the  theme  of  the  Scarlet  Letter.1  The  subject  of  this  tale  was 
especially  adapted  to  his  genius.  The  story  has  the  early 
New  England  background  and  atmosphere,  and  it  deals  with 
Puritan  practices  and  ideas.  It  is,  in  essence,  a  study  of 
four  persons  whose  situations  are  determined  by  their  rela 
tions  to  a  great  sin.  There  is  almost  no  action.  As  has 
often  been  said,  Hawthorne  begins  where  another  story 
teller  would  have  ended  —  with  the  public  punishment  of  the 
offender.  He  does  not  tell,  and  he  does  not  arouse  the 
slightest  curiosity  to  know  how  temptation  came  to  the 
guilty  ones,  or  in  what  circumstances  they  yielded.  He  suc 
ceeds  in  creating  an  absorbing  interest  in  the  subsequent 
workings  of  their  hearts,  and  in  the  mental  and  moral  ex 
periences  of  those  whom  their  acts  involve.  The  two  chief 
characters  differ  in  situation  because  one  suffers  open  shame, 
while  the  guilt  of  the  other  is  unknown,  and  he  endures  only 
the  tortures  of  his  own  conscience.  The  most  important 
problem  of  the  book  is  really  that  of  the  use  of  open  confession 
of  sin.  Allegorical  suggestiveness  is  seen  everywhere,  par 
ticularly  in  the  use  of  the  symbolic  letter  itself.  All  in  all, 
the  Scarlet  Letter  takes  almost  unquestioned  rank  as  the 
author's  masterpiece. 

The  scene  of  the  House  of  the  Seven  Gables,  the  second  of 
the  longer  works  of  fiction,  is  laid  in  Salem,  and  the  author 
has  woven  into  the  plot  some  traditions  from  his  own  family 
history.2  One  or  two  considerations,  however,  kept  him  from 

1  An  incidental  reference,  a  mention  of  the  letter  and  its  signifi 
cance,  is  found  in  one  of  the  early  tales,  "Endicott  and  the  Red 
Cross."     The  story  of  finding  the  manuscript  and  the  faded  em 
broidery  in  the  attic  of  the  customhouse,  which  Hawthorne   tells 
in  the  introductory  sketch,  is  of  course  pure  fiction. 

2  A  curse,  similar  to  that  which  the  wizard  Maule  in  the  story  in 
vokes  on  the  first  of  the  Pyncheons,  is  said  to  have  been  pronounced 
on  Hathorne,  the  witch  judge ;  and  the  family  long  believed  them- 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         193 

being  quite  at  his  best  in  the  book.  In  the  sketch  introduc 
tory  to  the  Scarlet  Letter,  written  while  Hawthorne  was  smart 
ing  from  his  dismissal  from  office,  he  commented  on  his  as 
sociates  in  the  customhouse  in  a  way  that  was  at  least  in 
questionable  taste.  Salem  people  sympathized  with  the 
victims  of  his  attack,  and  showed  their  indignation,  so  that 
during  the  time  that  he  was  engaged  on  the  House  of  the 
Sewn  Gables  his  feelings  toward  his  native  city  were  not 
cordial.  In  the  character  of  the  villain,  Judge  Pyncheon,  he 
tried  to  express  his  scorn  at  the  politician  whom  he  held 
chiefly  responsible  for  his  removal.  Perhaps  it  is  because 
his  bad  temper  interfered  with  the  deliberate  serenity  of 
his  best  work  that  the  House  of  the  Seven  Gables  seems  less 
satisfactory  than  its  predecessor.  Still,  it  is  one  of  the  great 
American  romances,  and  some  chapters  are  rarely  excelled 
in  any  of  the  author's  writings.  It  has  the  New  England 
setting,  the  small  group  of  clearly  individualized  characters, 
the  evanescent  charm  of  atmosphere,  and  of  course  a  problem 
that  has  to  do  with  sin  —  the  sin  of  a  proud  and  self-centered 
man  visited  on  his  descendants,  as  some  believe  in  accordance 
with  the  dying  curse  of  his  victim. 

The  Blithedale  Romance,  the  third  of  the  longer  tales 
published  from  1850  to  1852,  has  its  scene  in  a  community 
that  is  clearly  recognizable  as  Brook  Farm,  and  some  of  the 
minor  characters  and  incidents  are  drawn  in  part  from  life. 
It  is  a  study  of  a  philanthropist  whose  enthusiasm  for  his 
favorite  reform  leads  him  to  a  disregard  of  his  duties  to  others, 
and  it  touches  incidentally  on  some  other  problems  which 
grew  out  of  the  social  conditions  of  the  time,  lllithi'ddlr  is 
the  only  important  tale  in  which  Hawthorne  comes  fully 
into  the  present  and  deals  with  the  movements  that  were 

selves  entitled  to  estates  in  Maine,  the  title  to  which  they  could  not 
prove  because  of  lost  deeds. 


194     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

agitating  New  England  in  his  day.  It  is  somewhat  different 
in  manner  from  the  other  romances,  and  is  usually  considered 
the  least  valuable.  1 

The  problem  of  the  Marble  Faun  is  nothing  less  than  the 
whole  question  of  the  use  of  sin  in  the  development  of  char 
acter.  This  is  the  only  one  of  the  romances  that  has  not  a 
New  England  setting,  and  in  this  two  of  the  chief  characters 
are  New  Englanders.  It  reflects  the  author's  experiences  in 
Italy  —  reflects  them  so  fully  that  it  has  been  called  a  good 
guide  book  to  Rome.  This  characterization  was  doubtless 
intended  as  a  compliment,  yet  a  romance  and  a  guide  book 
are  very  different,  and  a  good  guide  book  is  very  unlikely 
to  be  a  good  romance.  The  detailed  descriptions  of  Roman 
scenes,  pictures,  and  statues,  and  the  symbolism  and  evan 
escent  suggestiveness,  to  which  the  Italian  setting  was  favor 
able,  combine  to  obscure  the  action  if  not  the  problem.  The 
book  is  more  variously  estimated  than  any  of  the  other  ro 
mances.  It  is  a  work  that  once  read  is  never  forgotten,  and 
in  some  respects  is  most  representative  of  Hawthorne's 
peculiar  genius;  but  it  lacks  somewhat  in  clearness  and  defi- 
niteness  of  impression. 

Though  Hawthorne's  work  is  read  abroad,  he  never  at 
tained  quite  so  great  a  foreign  reputation  as  some  of  his 
contemporaries.  This  may  be  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  he 
was  so  fully  representative  of  what  was  most  subtle  in  New 
England  character.  He  was  little  affected  by  the  New  Eng 
land  in  which  he  actually  lived  —  the  New  England  of  aboli 
tionism,  and  Transcendentalism,  and  awakened  interest  in  art 
and  literature.  Neither  was  he  much  influenced  by  the  more 

1  The  author  of  this  book  must  confess  that  he  is  inclined  to  rank 
it  higher,  perhaps  next  after  the  Scarlet  Letter ;  but  the  student  will 
be  wise  to  accept  the  general  judgment  —  with  a  mental  reserva 
tion  if  he  chooses  —  until  he  is  able  to  read  all  the  romances  and 
form  his  own  opinion. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         195 

obvious  aspects  of  the  older  Puritanism.  He  cared  little  for 
formal  theology  or  religious  observance.  He  was,  however, 
imbued  with  the  mystical,  brooding  spirit  which  has  always 
been  found  in  New  England,  and  which  was  perhaps  the  most 
valuable  characteristic  that  the  Puritan  had  to  bequeath  to 
the  man  of  letters.  Moreover,  he  made  himself,  during  his 
long  and  secluded  apprenticeship,  one  of  the  greatest  Ameri 
can  masters  of  prose,  so  that  in  the  kind  of  fiction  which  he 
attempted  he  is  without  a  rival  in  either  spirit  or  form. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  —  HOLMES,  though  not  the 
youngest  of  the  greater  New  England  group,  was  the  last 
to  win  literary  reputation,  and  the  last  to  die.  He  was  born 
in  Boston  in  1809,  and  was  related  on  both  his  father's  and 
his  mother's  side  to  some  of  the  distinguished  families  of 
Xew  England.  His  father  was  one  of  the  few  remaining 
Calvinistic  clergymen,  and  he  was  brought  up  with  strict 
ness,  though  he  soon  repudiated  his  father's  theological 
beliefs.  He  was  graduated  from  Harvard  with  the  class  of 
1829,  and  studied  medicine  in  Boston  and  for  two  years  in 
Paris.  He  practiced  with  moderate  success  in  his  native 
city,  and  in  1847  became  professor  of  anatomy  in  the  Har 
vard  Medical  School,  a  position  that  he  held  for  thirty-five 
years.1  He  established  himself  in  a  pleasant  house  on  Beacon 
Street,  one  of  the  most  quiet  and  conservatively  aristocratic 
residence  thoroughfares  of  Boston,  where  he  lived  a  full  and 
active  but  outwardlv  uneventful  life  until  1894. 


1  There  is  an  old  story  that  the  young  doctor's  announcement 
"The  smallest  fevers  gratefully  received,"  and  similar  flippancies, 
interfered  with  his  success  where  dignity  and  a  continued  air  of 
somber  wisdom  were  expected  of  a  physician.  His  \vit  was  no  dis 
advantage,  however,  in  his  lectures  to  medical  students.  He  was 
given  the  last  lecture  period  in  the  morning  because  he  was  said  to 
be  the  member  of  the  faculty  who  could  best  hold  the  attention  of 
the  class  at  that  hour. 


196    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

The  important  part  of  Holmes's  literary  career  did  not 
begin  until  1857,  when  he  contributed  the  Autocrat  of  the 
Breakfast- Table  to  the  first  volume  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.1 


Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

He  had,  it  is  true,  written  more  or  less  since  the  beginning 
of  his  college  days.     Among  his  early   poems  were  "  Old 

1  He  had  published  two  papers  bearing  this  title  in  the  New  Eng 
land  Magazine  more  than  twenty  years  before.  These  are  not  in 
his  best  vein,  and  have  never  been  reprinted ;  but  he  recognized 
their  existence  by  beginning  his  first  paper  in  the  Atlantic,  "As  I 
was  saying  when  I  was  interrupted." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         197 

Ironsides,"  his  impassioned  protest  against  the  destruction 
of  the  frigate  Constitution,  and  "  The  Last  Leaf  ";  but  the 
greater  part  of  his  writings  before  he  was  forty-eight  years 
of  age  were  relatively  unimportant  verses,  many  of  them 
humorous,  and  prose  essays  on  medical  and  related  subjects. 
He  had,  however,  won  a  reputation  as  a  brilliant  conver 
sationalist,  and  it  may  have  been  this  which  led  Lowell  to 
insist  that  he  contribute  informal  essays  to  the  new  magazine. 
The  Autocrat  was  followed  immediately  by  another  series, 
the  Professor  at  the  Breakfast- Table,  and  this  by  his  first 
novel,  Elsie  Venner.1  Later  he  wrote  two  more  novels, 
The  Guardian  Angel  and  A  Mortal  Antipathy,  as  well  as 
The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast- Table,  and  a  sort  of  epilogue  to 
the  Breakfast- Table  series,  Over  the  Tea-Cups.  All  these 
were  first  published  in  the  Atlantic. 

Holmes's  writings  all  show  the  traits  of  his  personality. 
He  was  a  man  of  wide  interests,  always  alive  to  all  that  was 
going  on  about  him.  His  New  England  ancestry,  and  par 
ticularly  the  position  that  his  father  had  occupied,  attracted 
him  to  theological  and  ethical  problems,  and  his  profession 
kept  him  awake  to  developments  in  scientific  thought.  He 
had  the  traditional  Yankee  ingenuity  and  fondness  for  dab 
bling  in  many  things.2  He  had  a  strong  sense  of  humor  and 
a  clever  wit.  He  was  politically  and  socially  a  conservative, 
and  while  he  was  always  on  the  side  of  humanity  in  moral 
questions,  he  was  irritated  by  the  extreme  reformers  that  he 
found  about  him.  In  literature  he  had  the  tastes  of  an  old- 
fashioned  gentleman.  More  than  almost  any  of  his  con- 

1  This  appeared  in  the  Atlantic  as   The  Professor's  Story. 

2  He   was   an   enthusiastic   amateur   photographer   when   every 
operator  must  mix  his  own  chemicals,  sensitize  his  own  plate,  and 
develop  it  before  it  had  time  to  dry;   and  he  invented  the  ordinary 
hand  stereoscope.     The  same  spirit  was  shown  in  a  different  way 
when,  rather  late  in  life,  he  undertook  to  learn  to  play  the  violin. 


198     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

temporaries  he  was  influenced  by  the  more  formal  and  re 
strained  English  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  the  poems  this  old-fashioned  quality  is  shown  both  in 
the  verse  form  and  in  the  choice  of  subjects.  Like  Pope  and 
his  followers  he  wrote  "  metrical  essays,"  —  discussions  of 
morals,  manners,  and  beliefs  in  cleverly  turned  heroic  coup 
lets.  His  shorter  poems  with  more  lyric  movement  are  also 
in  the  old-fashioned  quiet  manner.1  Even  the  humorous 


Homestead  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

poems  are  restrained  and  free  from  the  extravagance  and 
exaggeration  that  characterize  so  much  American  funny 
verse.  Still  better  than  the  wholly  humorous  poems  are  those 
that  blend  humor  and  pathos.2  One  of  these  is  "  The  Last 

1  In  a  good-natured  letter  to  Lowell,  Holmes  objected  to  what  he 
called  "the  rattlety-bang  sort  of  verse"  in  which  the  Vision  of  Sir 
Launfal  is  written. 

2  Notice  that  the  humor  and  pathos  are  really  blended,  not  as  is 


THE-  PERIOD  OF  ORE  A  TES  T  A  CHIEVEMENT         199 

Leaf,"  probably  the  best  of  his  early  poems.  In  "The 
Deacon's  Masterpiece,"  commonly  known  as  "The  One  Hoss 
Shay,"  there  is  no  pathos,  but  there  is  a  strong  element  of 
wisdom  and  common  sense.  Somewhat  similar  but  more 
whimsical  is  "  The  Broomstick  Train,"  published  in  Over  the 
Tea-Cups  —  a  wonderfully  fresh  and  lively  piece  of  work  for 
a  man  of  eighty.  Perhaps  the  best  known  of  the  wholly  seri 
ous  poems  is  "  The  Chambered  Nautilus,"  which,  like  "  The 
Deacon's  Masterpiece,"  first  appeared  in  the  Autocrat.  This 
is  almost  perfect  in  form,  and  has  a  touch  of  old-fashioned 
sentiment  and  moralizing  very  characteristic  of  the  author. 
Holmes  was  especially  successful  as  a  writer  of  poems  for 
special  occasions.  Among  the  best  of  these  are  those  read  at 
successive  reunions  of  the  Harvard  class  of  1829.  The  two 
most  generally  known  are  "  Bill  and  Joe,"  and  "  The  Boys." 
Holmes 's  important  prose  work  is  of  two  sorts  —  the  in 
formal  essays  and  the  novels.  The  former  are  contained  in 
the  Breakfast-  Table  series  and  Over  the  Tea-Cups.  The  three 
volumes  of  the  Breakfast-Table  series  repeat  respectively  the 
sayings  of  the  Autocrat,  the  Professor,  and  the  Poet  at  the 
breakfast  table  of  a  middle-class  boarding  house  in  Boston. 
The  other  characters,  whose  comments  and  replies  form  a 
setting  for  the  remarks  of  the  chief  speaker,  are  as  diverse  a 
company  as  might  be  expected  at  such  a  place.  These 
persons  are  lightly  sketched,  but  they  seem  very  real,  and 
their  doings  furnish  a  slight  thread  of  narration  to  bind  the 
whole  together.  The  rambling  talk  of  the  breakfast  table 
enables  Holmes  to  show  his  wide  interest  in  all  sorts  of 
things.  The  sudden  transitions  are  well  managed,  and  the 
continued  variety  gives  an  impression  very  like  that  actually 

often  the  case,  merely  mixed.  It  is  impossible  to  classify  some  stan 
zas  of  the  poem  as  either  humorous  or  pathetic.  They  are  both  at 
the  same  time. 


200     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


produced  by  brilliant  conversation.  Among  the  author's 
hobbies,  if  he  may  be  said  to  have  any,  are  his  dislike  to  some 
of  the  older  doctrines  of  moral  responsibility,  and  his  rec 
ognition  of  heredity  as  a  force  which  determines  not  only 
physical  but  mental  and  moral  characteristics.  He  was  al 
most  the  only  prominent  New  England  writer  who  paid 
much  attention  to  the  discoveries  and 
theories  of  modern  science  in  his  dis 
cussion  of  philosophical  problems.  Still, 
the  essays  are  far  from  being  over- 
/  serious.  The  conversation  at  the 

^••-   .  breakfast  table  ranged  all  the  way  from 

¥•*%*  la  weighty  and  abstract  questions  to  mat- 

1^1  ters  of  dress  and  the  gossip  of  the  race 

Ife  track.1     The  Autocrat  is  the  best  of  the 

j|.  series,    perhaps    because    it    contained 

^K      pp  brilliant   sayings    that   the    author  had 

&J  been  accumulating  for  years.     The  next 

|§'  best  is  probably  the  Poet.     Over  the  Tea- 

fct^r^P"*  Cups  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  books 

^ that  ever  came  from  the  pen  of  a  man 

of  eighty.       It  shows  that  even  at  this 
age  Holmes  had  lost  none  of  his  powers 
or   his   breadth    of    interest,    but    it    is 
written,  as  he  says,  especially  for  his  old  friends,  and  taken 
by  itself  is  not  quite  so  good  as  the  earlier  work. 

The  first  two  novels,  Elsie  Venner  and  The  Guardian 
Angel  were  written  with  the  obvious  purpose  of  showing 
how  heredity  affects  moral  responsibility.2  Elsie  Venner 

1  It  will  be  well  worth  while  for  the  student  to  make  a  list  of  the 
topics  discussed  in  any  ten  pages  of  the  Autocrat,  and  to  notice  not 
only  their  number,  but  their  diversity. 

2  Dr.  Holmes's  view,  which  he  more  than  once  presents,  may  be 
briefly  stated  thus  :    We  do  not  blame  one  man  for  being  physically 


An     English     carica 
ture  of  Dr.  Holmes. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         201 

is  the  stronger,  and  on  the  whole  the  better,  though  in  some 
ways  The  (!ii<irdi<in,  Angel  is  even  more  delightful.  Holmes's 
taste  was  old-fashioned  in  fiction  as  in  other  forms  of  litera 
ture,  and  his  stories  have  the  stock  characters  of  hero, 
heroine,  and  villain,  and  a  touch  of  romantic  sentimentality, 
though  the  problem  that  each  propounds  keeps  them  from 
being  in  the  least  commonplace.  .  1  Mortal  .  1  ntipathy,  a 
study  in  abnormal  psychology,  is  more  rambling  in  plan,  and 
less  convincing.1  Holmes's  other  prose  works  include  some 
medical  and  miscellaneous  essays,  biographies  of  Motley  and 
of  Emerson,  and  a  volume  on  his  visit  to  England  in  his 
seventy-eighth  year. 

Notwithstanding  his  breadth  of  interests  Holmes  was  in 
some  respects  a  provincial  writer.  None  of  his  prominent 
contemporaries  except  Whittier  spent  so  little  time  outside 

smaller  or  weaker  than  another,  or  even  for  being  physically  deformed, 
and  \ve  expect  less  strenuous  labor  from  the  weak  and  deformed 
man  than  from  the  strong  one.  Why  should  we  expect  from  the  man 
who  is  born  with  a  weak  or  perverted  moral  nature  the  same  moral 
achievement  that  we  require  of  one  morally  strong  ?  It  should  be 
remembered,  however,  that  when  the  Autocrat  and  Elsie  Venner 
were  written  the  idea  of  individual  responsibility  for  one's  actions 
was  still  as  strong  in  New  England  as  it  had  been  in  the  days  of 
Calvinism.  Dr.  Holmes  was  a  conservative,  and  he  would  almost 
certainly  have  objected  to  the  views  of  modern  sociologists  who  go 
to  the  other  extreme,  treat  sin  as  a  disease,  lay  the  blame  of  all 
moral  shortcomings  on  society,  and  free  the  sinner  from  all  respon 
sibility. 

1  The  story  of  this  amusing  book  is  that  of  a  young  man  who  had 
been  dropped  by  a  pretty  nursemaid  when  an  infant,  and  who,  as  a 
result  of  Ihe  shock,  had  an  uncontrollable  antipathy  to  all  pretty 
girls  —  an  unreasoning  ant  ipat  hy  similar  to  that  which  some  persons 
feel  when  they  see  a  snake.  This  state  of  affairs  is  ended  by  a 
countershock,  when  the  hero,  helplessly  ill,  is  rescued  from  a  burn 
ing  house  by  another  pretty  girl.  We  are  ready  to  accept  Dr. 
Ifolmes's  assurance  that  medicnl  annals  show  such  an  affliction  and 
such  a  cure  to  be  possible;  but  so  few  young  men  are  afflicted  in 
this  way  that  the  story  hardly  seems  plausible. 


202    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

New  England;  and  his  view  was  always  that  of  his  neigh 
borhood  and  his  social  class.  He  represented  the  intellectual 
and  social  aristocracy  which  he  himself  wittily  called  the 
"  Brahmin  caste  of  Xew  England."  1  Still,  he  was  as  wide 
in  his  sympathies  as  in  his  intellectual  interests,  and  he  was 
in  no  degree  a  snob.  He  showed  at  its  best  the  sort  of  Amer 
ican  humor  which  develops  from  culture,  as  distinguished 
from  that  which  embodies  the  breadth  and  the  freedom  of 
more  primitive  life.2  His  writings,  like  those  of  Irving, 
always  remind  the  reader  that  they  are  the  work  of  a  gentle 
man;  and  though  he  was  more  brilliant  and  less  winningly 
genial  than  Irving,  his  wit  and  satire  rarely  offend.  He  was 
neither  the  greatest  poet  nor  the  greatest  essayist  of  his 
group,  but  to  many  readers  he  is  the  most  delightful. 

The  New  England  Group.  —  Emerson,  Whittier,  Lowell, 
Longfellow,  Hawthorne,  and  Holmes  were  the  chief  members 
of  the  most  distinguished  group  of  authors  that  America 
has  yet  produced.  All  these  were  natives  and  true  sons  of 
New  England,  they  were  all  personal  friends,  they  contrib 
uted  to  the  same  periodicals,  and  were  related  in  many 
ways.  Closely  associated  with  them  were  many  other 
authors  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston  and  Cam 
bridge.  There  were  also  writers  in  other  parts  of  New  Eng 
land  whose  connection  with  the  central  group  was  more  or 
less  remote.  Many  of  these  showed  great  excellences  in 
certain  directions,  but  none  of  them  can  claim  to  rank  with 
the  six  masters.  Thoreau,  Mrs.  Stowe,  and  others  have 
already  been  discussed,  and  a  few  more,  though  not  nec 
essarily  the  most  important,  will  be  mentioned  here. 

1  Holmes  states  his  view  of  aristocracy  in  a  passage  on  self-made 
men  in  the  first  part  of  the  Autocrat. 

2  His  only  rival  in  this  field  was  Lowell ;   but  Lowell  often  made 
use  of  humor  of  the  other  sort,  as  in  some  of  the  Biglow  Papers. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


203 


James  T.  Fields.  —  The  man  who  did  most  to  bind  the 
literary  group  together  was  JAMES  T.  FIELDS,  the  head  of  the 
chief  publishing  house  in  Boston,  and  the  successor  of  Lowell 
as  the  editor  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.  As  publisher  and 
editor  he  was  the  helpful  friend  of  the  authors  with  whom 
he  had  to  deal,1  and  many  of  the  famous  meetings  of  the 
literary  set  were  due  to  his  hospitality,  or  at  least  to  his 
initiative.  His  Yesterdays  with  Authors,  a  book  containing 
criticism  and  gossipy  remi 
niscence  of  English  and  Ameri 
can  men  of  letters,  is  interesting, 
and  so  to  a  lesser  degree  are  his 
poems  and  miscellaneous  essays; 
but  it  is  for  his  influence  on 
other  authors  rather  than  for 
his  own  work  that  he  deserves 
to  be  remembered. 

Two  New  England  Poets.  - 
Among  the  more  important  of 
the  minor  Xew  England  poets 
were  Thomas  William  Parsons 
and  William  Wetmore  Story. 
Parsons  was  a  native  of  Boston, 
but  spent  much  time  in  Italy. 

His  greatest  work  was  a  translation  of  Dante,  on  which  he 
labored  devotedly  for  many  years.  He  also  wrote  a  num 
ber  of  lyrics,  the  best  of  which  is  "  On  a  Bust  of  Dante." 
The  bulk  of  his  original  verse  is  small,  and  it  is  not  of  a  sort 
to  catch  the  popular  ear,  but  he  was  a  true  poet,  and  some 

1  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  Fields's  service  in  inducing 
Hawthorne  to  expand  the  Scarlet  Letter  into  a  romance,  and  to  the 
affectionate  picture  which  Whittier  drew  of  him  as  one  of  the  char 
acters  in  the  "Tent  on  the  Beach." 


Fields,  Hawthorne,  and  Ticknor. 


204    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


of  his  work  is  almost  flawless.  WILLIAM  WETMORE  STORY 
was  another  Massachusetts  man  who  spent  much  of  his  life 
in  Italy.  He  was  the  son  of  a  distinguished  jurist,  and  he 
himself  attained  distinction  at  the  bar  before  he  aban 
doned  his  profession  to  become  a  sculptor.  In  Italy  he 
was  an  intimate  friend  of  Robert  Browning,  and  he  wrote 
"  dramatic  lyrics  "  which  show  the  influence  of  that  poet, 
though  he  used  the  method  in  his  own  way.1  He  also  \vrote 
prose  essays.  With  Story  literature  \vas  only  an  avoca 
tion,  and  he  did  not  put  quite  his 
best  energies  into  his  wrritings,  yet 
most  of  them,  and  particularly  his 
poems,  are  careful,  well-considered 
work.  Personally  he  was  a  man  of 
culture  and  social  charm,  and  he  is 
mentioned  appreciatively  in  the  cor 
respondence  and  reminiscences  of 
the  many  English  and  American 
men  of  letters  who  visited  Rome 
during  his  residence  there. 

Some  New  England  Writers  of 
Fiction.  —  Two  of  the  New  England 
writers  of  fiction,  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT  and  J.  T.  TROW- 
BRIDGE,  addressed  themselves  especially  to  young  people. 
Miss  Alcott,  daughter  of  the  erratic  Transcendentalist, 
Amos  Bronson  Alcott,  was  best  in  portraying  the  whole 
some,  homely  life  of  a  New  England  family,  and  she  drew 
on  her  own  experiences  for  some  of  her  most  interesting 

1  The  best  of  Story's  longer  and  more  ingenious  poems  is  "A 
Roman  Lawyer  in  Jerusalem,"  a  defense  of  Judas,  in  which  the 
apologist  tries  to  show  that  the  motives  for  betraying  Christ  might 
have  been  wholly  worthy.  The  best  of  his  shorter  poems  is  "Cleo 
patra,"  a  study  of  passion  which  has  something  of  the  "dramatic" 
quality. 


Louisa  M.  Alcott. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


205 


material.  Her  stories  are  humorous,  and  clever,  show  a  help 
ful  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  are  not  spoiled  by 
preachy  moralizing.  Traditionally  they  are  supposed  to  be 
for  girls,  but  the  boy  who,  openly  or  surreptitiously,  has 
read  his  sister's  copies  of  Little  Women  or  Eight  Cousins  has 
surely  found  them  enjoyable.  On  the  other  hand  Trow- 
bridge's  books,  supposedly  for  boys,  are  equally  enjoyed  by 
girls.1  There  is  usually 
an  element  of  adven 
ture  in  these,  but  it  is 
never  of  the  sensational 
sort,  and  the  story  is 
often  told  with  skill. 
In  this  connection 
should  perhaps  be  men 
tioned  the  REVEREXD 
JACOB  ABBOTT,  of 
Maine,  whose  Rollo 
books  are  also  for 
young  people,  but  are 
written  with  a  didactic 
purpose  similar  to  that 
of  Peter  Parley. 

Some    New   England 

Essayists.  —  DONALD  G.  MITCHELL,  of  Connecticut,  who 
made  use  of  the  pen  name  Ik  Marvel,  was  one  of  the  most 
important  of  the  minor  essayists,  though  an  element  of 
old-fashioned  sentimentality  has  caused  his  works  to  lose 

1  Trowbridge  had  a  remarkably  long  career  as  a  writer,  and  there 
are  many  of  these  stories.  Kvery  boy  who  has  been  fortunate 
enough  to  read  I  linn  at  the  proper  age  has  his  own  favorites,  and 
will  indignant  ly  resent  any  different  est  imate  of  t  heir  relative  values. 
The  author  of  this  book  would  modestly  express  his  preference  for 
the  Jack  Hazard  series. 


Donald  G.  Mitchell 


206    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


something  of  their  former  popularity.  The  best  of  his 
books  is  the  Reveries  of  a  Bachelor,  a  delightful  rambling 
work  which  is,  so  to  speak,  between  a  romance  and  a  series 
of  personal  essays.  Dream  Life  is  somewhat  similar. 
Mitchell's  later  works  are  mostly  personal  essays  and  literary 
criticism.  CHARLES  DUDLEY  WARNER,  who  had  literary 
associations  with  various  parts  of  the  country,  but  who  fairly 

belongs  to  New  Eng 
land,  was  an  essayist  of 
the  journalistic  sort,  the 
author  of  some  light  fic 
tion,  and  the  editor  of 
the  American  Men  of 
Letters  series.  The 
Gilded  Age  is  a  story 
which  he  wrote  jointly 
with  Mark  Twain. 
Somewhat  younger  than 
these  men  was  JOHN 
FISKE,  a  resident  of 
Cambridge,  who  showed 
in  his  essays  a  remark 
able  power  of  interpret 
ing  the  more  abstruse 
theories  of  modern  philosophers  to  ordinary  readers.  He 
also  wrote  several  works  on  American  history  and  was  es 
pecially  interested  in  American  political  ideals. 

The  New  England  Historians.  —  Four  other  Massa 
chusetts  historians,  WILLIAM  HICKLING  PRESCOTT,  JOHN 
LOTHROP  MOTLEY,  GEORGE  BANCROFT,  and  FRANCIS  PARK- 
MAN,  won  high  rank,  though  they  can  be  but  briefly  con 
sidered  here.  All  were  graduates  of  Harvard.  Prescott, 
the  eldest,  wrote  on  Spanish  history  and  Spanish  conquest 


Charles  Dudley  Warner. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT        207 

in  America.1  Motley  devoted  himself  to  Dutch  history, 
taking  up  the  story  where  the  affairs  of  Holland  were  en 
twined  with  those  of  Spain.2  Bancroft  and  Parkman  chose 
American  subjects.  Bancroft  gave  his  long  life  to  a  general 
history  of  the  United  States,  the  first  volume  of  which  ap- 


Home  of  Charles  Dudley  Warner  at  Hartford. 

peared  in  1834,  and  the  last  in  1882.  Parkman  wrote  a 
series  of  volumes  which,  taken  together,  cover  the  whole 
history  of  the  struggle  between  the  English  and  the  French 

1  His  chief  works  are :    Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  The  Conquest  of 
Mexico,  The  Conquest  of  Peru,  and  The  Reign  of  Philip  II. 

2  His  histories  are :    The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  The  History 
of  the  United  Netherlands,  and  John  of  Barneveld. 


208     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

in  North  America.1  lie  was  a  master  of  both  narration  and 
description,  and  his  works  are  wonderfully  readable,  while 
his  painstaking  care  as  an  investigator  gives  them  the  high 
est  value  as  history.  Mention  should  also  be  made  of  his 
earliest  volume,  the  California  and  Oregon  Trail,  which  tells 
of  a  trip  that  he  made  in  1846  into  the  wilderness  west  of  the 
Mississippi.  It  is  full  of  stirring  and  varied  adventure,  and 

though  a  strict  record  of  fact  is 
more  entertaining  than  most 
works  of  fiction. 

New  England  Orators.  —  Ora 
tory  in  New  England,  at  least 
the  political  oratory  of  the  more 
cultured  classes,  followed  for  a 
long  time  the  more  ornate  models. 
Webster  and  Everett  lived  well 
into  this  period.  Wendell  Phil 
lips  has  already  been  men 
tioned.  CHARLES  SOIXER,  the 
especial  friend  of  Longfellow,  and 
RUFUS  CHOATE  were  both  stu 
dents  of  the  classics,  and  their  speeches  are  elaborate  and 
filled  with  quotations  and  allusions.  While  these  men  were 
delivering  their  ponderous  orations  in  congress  and  elsewhere 
on  formal  occasions,  Emerson,  Thoreau,  Lowell,  Holmes, 
and  hundreds  of  lecturers  less  famous  were  addressing  ly- 
ceums  in  town  halls  and  country  schoolhouses.  This  may 
have  helped  to  bring  about  the  taste  for  a  simpler  style  of 


William  H.  Presrott. 


1  This  series  includes:  The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac;  Pioneers  of 
France  in  the  New  World;  The  Jesuits  in  North  America  in  the  Seven 
teenth  Century ;  La  Salle  or  the  Discovery  of  the  Great  West ;  The  Old 
Regime  in  Canada;  Count  Frontenac  and  New  France  under  Louis 
XIV ;  Montcalm  and  Wolfe;  and  A  Half -Century  of  Conflict. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


209 


oratory  which  began  to  manifest  itself  before  the  close  of  the 
period. 

New  England  Humorists.  —  Besides  Lowell  and  Holmes, 
who  are  so  much  more  than  mere  humorists,  New  England 
produced  several  men 
wTho  are  remembered 
chiefly  for  their  fun. 
The  greatest  of  these 
was  CHARLES  FARRAR 
BROWNE,  known  by  his 
pen  name  of  Artemus 
Ward.  Like  many 
humorists  of  the  same 
class  he  gained  his 
training  in  newspaper 
offices.  His  fun  is  of 
the  boisterous,  rollick 
ing  sort,  intermixed 
with  quiet  drollery  and 
unexpected  turns  of 
thought  and  phrase. 
Artemus  Ward  lectured 
with  success  in  the 
East,  in  California,  and 
in  England,  but  he  died 
of  consumption  at  the 
early  age  of  thirty- 
three,  perhaps  before  his  genius  was  fully  developed. 

Hale  and  Higginson.  —  Two  late  survivors  of  the  Boston- 
Cambridge  group  were  active  in  so  many  kinds  of  literary 
work  that  it  is  hard  to  classify  them.  The  REVEREND 
EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  whose  long  life  extended  from  1822 
to  1909,  wrote  essays,  biographies,  histories,  and  fiction. 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


210     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


George  Bancroft. 

letters.  He  was  active  in  the  anti 
the  agitation  for  women's  rights, 
as  in  literary  affairs,  and  he 
wrote  much  on  the  great  move 
ments  which  he  saw  and  part 
of  which  he  was.  It  is  prob 
ably  his  gossipy  and  reminis 
cent  writings  which  have  great 
est  permanent  value,  though 
he  published  histories,  bi 
ographies,  poems,  and  essays. 
Men  of  One  Work.  —  In 
contrast  to  the  two  versatile 
writers  just  named  stand  sev- 


Almost  all  of  this  is 
good  and  readable,  but 
perhaps  it  is  some  of 
his  short  stories  which 
are  most  likely  to  last. 
"The  Man  without  a 
Country,"  written  to 
arouse  patriotism  dur 
ing  the  Civil  War,  is 
one  of  the  most  artistic 
and  effective  of  Ameri 
can  prose  tales.  The 
R  E  V  E  R  E  N  D  T  H  O  M  A  S 
WENTWORTII  HIGGIN- 
SON,  who  was  born  in 
1823  and  who  died  in 
1911,  stood  in  close  rela 
tionship  to  the  greater 
New  England  men  of 
•slavery  campaign  and  in 


Francis  Parkman. 


TEE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         211 

eral  who  are  likely  to  be  remembered,  each  for  only  one 
work.  SAMUEL  F.  SMITH,  a  classmate  of  Holmes  at 
Harvard,  wrote  the  verses  of  the  national  hymn,  "  My 


r  and  Longfellow. 


country,  'tis  of  thee."  MRS.  JULIA  WARD  HOWK  will 
probably  be  known  only  by  the  "  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic,"  though  she  wrote  much  against  slavery  and 
in  favor  of  women's  suffrage.  R.  H.  DAXA,  JR.,  son  of 


212     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


Edward  Everett  Hale. 


the  older  Boston  poet 
and  story-writer,  was 
the  author  of  Two 
Years  Before  the  Mast. 
This  delightful  narra 
tive  tells  of  the  au 
thor's  cruise  from  Bos 
ton  to  California  and 
back,  around  the  Cape, 
and  is  probably  the  best 
true  narrative  of  life  on 
an  old-time  American 
sailing  vessel.  DANIEL 
P.  THOMPSON,  of  Ver 
mont,  wrote  the  Green 
Mountain  Boys,  an  old- 
fashioned  historical 

novel   dealing   with   the   Revolution,   which   has   delighted 

many  readers. 

THE  MIDDLE  STATES 

Literary  Conditions  in  New  York.  —  Even  while  the 
Boston-Cambridge  group  of  writers  was  at  its  best,  New 
York  was  in  one  sense  the  literary  center  of  the  country. 
Here  were  the  greatest  metropolitan  newspapers,  and  with 
one  or  two  exceptions  in  each  instance  the  greatest  publish 
ing  houses  and  the  greatest  literary  magazines.1 

1  The  high-grade  illustrated  magazines  were  developed  in  New 
York,  and  with  the  invention  of  improved  processes  of  printing  pic 
tures  they  outstripped  in  popular  favor  the  magazines  which,  like 
the  Atlantic  Monthly,  had  few  or  no  illustrations.  The  best  of  these 
have  been  Harper's  Monthly,  the  old  Scribner's  Monthly,  which 
later  became  the  Century,  and  the  new  Scribner's  Magazine.  There 
have  also  been  many  others  of  no  mean  merit. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


213 


The  Boston-Cambridge  writers  were  all  Xew  Englanders 
who  preserved  their  inheritance  of  temperament  and  ideals. 
The  Xew  York  writers  were,  as  in  the  earlier  period,  men  of 
varied  ancestry  and  training  attracted  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  often  for  commercial  reasons  or  reasons  of  conven 
ience.  They  did 
not  center  about  a 
great  college  like 
Harvard,  or  about 
a  great  magazine 
like  the  Atlantic 
Monthly.  They 
did  not  constitute 
a  "  school,"  and 
their  writings  did 
not  necessarily  rep 
resent  the  spirit  of 
Xew  York  City  or 
of  the  middle 
states. 

Walt  Whitman. 
-  W  A  LT  Wn  mi  A  x , 
the  most  striking 
of  the  Xew  York 
poets,  was  one  of 
those  who  did  at 
tempt  to  present 

the  spirit  of  the  metropolis,  or,  more  accurately,  the 
spirit  of  the  nation  as  shown  in  the  metropolis.  He  was 
born  on  Long  Island  in  1819,  the  same  year  as  Lowell,  and 
about  half  a  generation  after  the  older  Xew  England  men  of 
letters.  He  received  a  common  school  education,  and  him 
self  taught  common  school  for  a  winter  or  two.  His  most 


Whitman  in  1855 — Frontispiece  to  first  edition 
of  Leaves  of  Grass 


214     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

valuable  training,  however,  was  obtained  in  newspaper 
offices,  where  he  held  various  positions  from  compositor  to 
editor,  never  remaining  long  in  one  office  or  situation.  He 
also  followed  for  a  time  the  business  of  building  and  selling 
small  dwelling  houses  in  Brooklyn.  Until  he  was  forty- 
three  years  old  he  lived  most  of  the  time  in  and  near  Brooklyn 
and  New  York  City,  except  for  a  year  or  two  when  he  took 
a  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  worked  at  his  trade  in  various 
cities  on  the  way  back.  After  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg 
he  went  South  to  find  his  brother,  who  had  been  wounded, 
and  he  remained  in  the  hospitals  about  Washington  as  a 
volunteer  nurse  to  other  soldiers.  He  held  government 
clerkships  in  Washington  until  1873,  when  a  stroke  of  paraly 
sis  necessitated  his  retirement.  From  this  time  until  his 
death  in  1892  he  lived  in  Camden,  New  Jersey. 

Few  of  Whitman's  writings  produced  during  his  early 
connection  with  newspapers  have  been  preserved,  and  these 
few  are  of  slight  merit  and  show  little  resemblance  to  his 
later  work.  The  first  edition  of  Leaves  of  Grass  came  out 
in  1855.  "  Leaves  of  Grass  "  was  a  title  which  he  adopted, 
not  for  this  particular  collection,  but  for  his  complete  poetical 
works;  and  between  1855  and  1891  he  published  ten  issues 
or  editions,  each  larger  than  the  preceding,  and  containing 
all  his  poems  which,  at  the  time,  he  wished  preserved.  He 
also  collected  a  volume  of  his  prose  writings  which  includes, 
among  other  things,  some  interesting  and  valuable  auto 
biographic  memoranda  entitled  "  Specimen  Days,"  and 
"  Democratic  Vistas,"  the  essay  in  which  he  most  fully  ex 
pounds  his  peculiar  theories. 

Two  peculiarities  of  the  Leaves  of  Grass  at  once  attracted 
attention.  The  poems  were  not  in  regular  verse  form,  but 
were  without  rhyme  or  regular  meter;  and  the  author  dis 
cussed  with  perfect  frankness  certain  topics  which  are  usually 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         215 


216     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

referred  to  but  indirectly  in  English  literature.  Neither 
of  these  characteristics  seems  quite  so  striking  as  it  did  in 
1855,  and  though  neither  has  won  very  general  approval, 
the  critics  of  to-day  recognize  that  both  are  the  natural 
results  of  the  author's  theory  of  poetry.  Whitman  an 
nounced  a  new  poetry  which  was  to  be  wholly  free  from  the 
limitations  of  tradition  and  rules,  and  which  was  to  treat  all 
subjects  in  accordance  with  their  true  value.  He  discarded 
meter  and  rhyme  because  he  thought  they  hampered  and 
repressed  the  poet;  and  he  wrote  on  tabooed  subjects  be 
cause,  since  all  organs  and  functions  of  the  body  are  equally 
natural,  he  thought  them  equally  fitted  for  treatment  in 
literature.  His  one  great  word  was  "  democracy,"  which 
to  him  meant  chiefly  "  equality,"  -  that  every  person  and 
every  thing  in  the  universe  is,  so  to  speak,  as  good  as  every 
other  person  and  thing.1  He  wrote  much  of  "  I  "  and 
"  myself,"  explaining,  what  his  first  readers  sometimes 
missed,  that  by  these  pronouns  he  meant  not  alone  himself, 
but  every  individual.2  When  he  specified  other  persons 
they  were  often  men  of  the  class  that  most  appealed  to  him 
—  uncultured  but  capable,  energetic  laborers,  such  as  en 
gineers,  omnibus  drivers,  and  street  car  conductors.  He 
extended  his  idea  of  democracy  to  things  as  well  as  to  per 
sons,  and  though  he  was  especially  moved  by  some  of  the 

1  There  is  an  obvious  similarity  between  this  view  and  the  theories 
of  transcendentalism.     Whitman  was  early  attracted  by  Emerson, 
and  Emerson  in  turn  paid  high  tribute  to  the  first  edition  of  Leaves  of 
Grass,  though  he  regretted  Whitman's  extreme  peculiarities.     Later, 
Whitman  disclaimed  any  indebtedness    to  Emerson  —  or  to   any 
one  else  —  but  it  is  probable  that  at  first  he  was  influenced  to  some 
extent  by  the  New  England  Transcendentalists. 

2  "I  celebrate  myself,  and  sing  myself, 

And  what  I  assume  you  shall  assume, 

For  every  atom  belonging  to  me  as  good  belongs  to  you." 
Opening  lines  of  "Song  of  Myself." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         217 

finer  aspects  of  nature,  such  as  the  sea,  he  also  wrote  on  such 
subjects  as  the  compost  heap.  He  even  believed  in  the 
equality  of  words,  and  deliberately  gave  colloquialisms  and 
slang  a  place  in  his  poetic  vocabulary. 

There  are  many  questions  regarding  Whitman's  character  1 
and  the  character  of  his  writings  which  cannot  be  discussed 
here,  but  it  will  be  sufficient  if  the  student  grasps  the  es 
sentials  of  his  theory  of  poetry  and  decides  for  himself 
whether  they  are  true.  For  his  theory  as  theory  something 
can  be  said.  The  most  repulsive  tramp  is  still  a  human 
being,  and  most  of  us  would  hesitate  to  say  that  one  human 
soul  is  less  valuable  than  another  human  soul.  The  chemical 
changes  that  produce  the  odors  of  the  compost  heap  follow 
the  same  laws  as  those  which  produce  the  odors  of  the  flower, 
and  to  a  scientist  are  just  as  interesting.  The  question  is, 
are  the  tramp  and  the  compost  heap  as  appropriate  subjects 
for  poetry  as  the  innocent  maiden  and  the  rose?  or,  to  put 
the  question  abstractly,  is  poetry  as  broad  in  its  subjects  as 
philosophy  and  science?  Whitman  answered  these  questions 
in  the  affirmative.  Those  who  agree  with  him  should  have 
no  difficulty  in  accepting  his  poems.  The  great  majority 
of  readers  believe,  however,  that  art  has  laws  and  a  field  of 
its  own,  and  that  when  Whitman  ignored  these  laws  and 
ventured  outside  this  field  he  was  misled.2 

1  Among  these  is  the  question  of  his  genuineness.  Many  persons 
have  believed  that  he  was  always  posing,  and  that  he  advocated  his 
peculiar  viV\vs  only  because  they  would  attract  attention.  In 
support  of  this  belief  they  point  to  the  oddities  of  dress  which  he 
always  affected,  to  his  habit  of  writing  notices  of  himself  and  sending 
them  to  the  newspapers,  and  to  the  egotism  shown  in  his  Idlers  and 
other  writings.  It  is  hard  1o  deny  that  he  \vas  egotistical  or  Ihat 
hr  posed  sometimes,  but  there  seems  no  good  reason  for  thinking 
that  he  did  not  believe  the  things  he  advocated. 

-  11  is  unfortunate  that  the  beginner  cannot  ignore  the  question 
of  the  morals  of  Whitman's  poems,  but  so  much  has  been  said  of 


218    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


More  than  one  poet  has  been  better  than  his  poetical 
theories,  and  this  is  probably  true  of  Whitman.  Those 
who  are  not  ready  to  accept  him  as  the  prophet  of  a  new 
poetry  find,  in  chosen  passages  of  his  works,  much  to  admire. 
There  is  a  tonic  quality  in  his  free,  robust  view  of  life,  and 
there  are  bits  of  his  poems  that  are  expressed  with  great 

power.  The  absence  of  the  usual 
verse  form  is  likely  to  prove 
troublesome  at  first,  and  perhaps 
the  Leaves  of  Grass  would  be 
more  effective  if  it  were  printed 
like  prose.  In  that  case  one 
would  not  try  to  scan  it,  as  one 
instinctively  does  anything  di 
vided  into  lines  beginning  with 
capital  letters.  Read  as  one 
would  read,  for  example,  the 
impassioned  prose  of  the  Bible, 
such  poems  as  "  Out  of  the 
Cradle  Endlessly  Rocking,"  and 

"  When  Lilacs  Last  in  the  Door- Yard  Bloomed  "  have  a 
wonderful    melody,    which    becomes    more  and    more    im- 

his  impropriety  that  this  is  difficult.  When  Leaves  of  Grass  first 
appeared,  critics  argued:  "Heretofore  certain  subjects  have  been 
mentioned  in  poetry  only  by  licentious  poets ;  Whitman  mentions 
them,  therefore  he  is  licentious."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  the 
objectionable  passages  in  Leaves  of  Grass  are  no  more  licentious  than 
the  discussions  of  similar  subjects  in  a  sociological  or  a  medical 
treatise.  Morbid  and  evil-minded  persons  can  get  an  improper 
satisfaction  from  reading  them,  as  they  can  from  reading  certain 
books  in  every  doctor's  library ;  but  they  are  to  be  condemned,  not 
for  this  reason,  but  because  they  have  no  place  in  literature.  They 
are  not  poetry.  The  best  plan  is  for  the  beginner  to  let  them  alone 
—  there  are  not  many  of  them  —  and  form  his  opinion  of  Whitman 
from  passages  that  raise  only  aesthetic  questions. 


Whitman  at  seventy. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         219 

pressive  as  the  reader  grows  accustomed  to  it.  Even 
in  the  best  poems,  to  be  sure,  are  passages  which  fall 
from  the  general  level,  and  in  many  are  long  prosaic 
sections,  mere  catalogues  of  things,  which  only  the  enthu 
siastic  worshiper  of  Whitman  can  consider  poetry.  But 
it  is  not  by  these  that  his  best  should  be  judged. 

In  Europe,  Whitman  has  often  been  called  the  most  dis 
tinctive  figure  in  American  literature,  partly,  perhaps,  be 
cause  Europeans  think  that  the  distinctive  literature  of  a 
democratic  nation  must  be  wholly  different  from  that  of  the 
older  world,  partly  because  his  conception  of  democracy  is 
more  nearly  that  of  the  European  than  that  of  the  American.1 
In  America  he  has  won  his  way  slowly,  and  he  has  hardly 
won  it  at  all  among  the  people  for  whom  he  tried  to  speak. 
He  objected  to  the  poetry  of  the  past  because  it  did  not  deal 
enough  with  the  common,  everyday  man,  and  he  tried  to 
remedy  the  deficiency.  Yet  his  following  has  been  almost 
wholly  among  the  academic  classes,  and  not  one  in  a  thousand 
of  the  "  common  people  "  knows  Whitman  as  well  as  he 
knows  Longfellow.  It  is  unlikely  that  he  will  ever  make 
his  way  directly  to  the  hearts  of  such  persons;  but  the  rec 
ognition  that  there  is  a  partial  truth  in  his  theories  has  done 
something  to  increase  the  breadth  and  range  of  poetry,  and 
his  form,  while  accepted  in  its  full  freedom  by  few  poets, 
has  influenced  the  versification  of  the  last  generation.2 

1  For  an  interesting  presentation  of  this  fact  see  Professor  Barrett 
Wendell's  Literary  History  »f  Annrica,  pp.  467-471. 

2  As  some  students  of  this  book  will  he  making  their  first  acquaint 
ance  with     Whitman,  a  few  hints  and  suggestions  may  be  worth 
while,  especially  to  those  who  are  repelled  by  their  first  glance  into 
Leaves  of  Grass.     Begin  with  brief  descriptive  poems,  such  as  "To 
the  Man-of-War  Bird,"  "Ethiopia  Saluting  the  Colors,"  "On   tin- 
Beach   at    Xight."    "With    Haughty-Husky    Lips,    O   Sea,"    "The 
Voice  of  the  Rain,"  and  with  such  longer  poems  as  "WThen  Lilacs 


220     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

The  "  Bohemians."  -  During  Whitman's  later  residence 
in  New  York  he  was  a  member  of  the  group  known  as 
the  "  Bohemians,"  of  whose  meetings  in  1 'faffs  basement 
restaurant  on  Broadway  many  interesting  stories  are  told. 
The  Bohemians  were  mostly  newspaper  men,  many  of  them 
geniuses  of  peculiar  or  irregular  habits.  Almost  the  only 
members  of  the  group  who  are  now  remembered,  except 
Whitman,  are  WILLIAM  WINTER,  who  later  had  a  long  career 
in  Xew  York  as  journalist  and  dramatic  critic,  and  FITZ- 
JAMES  O'BRIEN.  O'Brien  was  a  native  of  Ireland  who  came 
to  Xew  York  about  1852  and  before  his  death  ten  years 
later  did  much  writing  for  newspapers  and  magazines.  His 
best  work  was  in  his  imaginative  prose  tales,  a  few  of  which 
had  an  important  place  in  the  development  of  the  American 
short  story.1 

Stoddard,  Stedman,  and  Aldrich.  —  Another  group  of 
writers  who  sometimes  looked  in  at  Pfaff s  restaurant, 
though  they  were  of  quite  another  sort  from  the  real  Bohe 
mians,  included  Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  Edmund  Clarence 
Stedman,  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,  and  Bayard  Taylor  — 
the  last  named  for  a  time  a  resident  of  Xew  York,  but  be- 
Last  in  the  Door-Yard  Bloomed,"  and  "Out  of  the  Cradle  End 
lessly  Rocking."  Leave  such  pieces  as  the  "  Song  of  Myself,"  the 
mere  catalogues,  and  the  passages  that  have  aroused  controversy 
until  you  understand  just  what  Whitman  was  trying  to.  do.  Do 
not  be  disturbed  by  the  lack  of  ordinary  verse  form.  Read  aloud, 
if  possible,  but  read  as  you  read  rhythmical  prose,  not  as  verse,  and 
notice  especially  the  vividness,  the  delicate  accuracy,  and  the  sug- 
gestiveness  of  the  pictures  that  the  author  paints. 

1  The  three  best  of  O'Brien's  tales  are  "What  Was  It  ?  a  Mys 
tery,"  "The  Diamond  Lens,"  and  "The  Wondersmith."  All  these 
have  some  faults  of  construction,  but  show  unusual  original 
imagination.  The  striking  idea  of  a  supernatural  being  invisible 
but  perceptible  to  the  sense  of  touch,  first  developed  in  "What  Was 
It?  a  Mystery,"  has  been  borrowed  by  various  authors,  American 
and  European. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


221 


longing  more  properly  to  Pennsylvania.1  All  these  men 
were  connected  with  newspapers  and  magazines,  all  were 
good  friends,  and  all  agreed  to  some  extent  in  literary  ideals. 
In  general,  they  emphasized  the  idea  that  literature  is  an 
art,  not  primarily  a  means  of  conveying  information,  or  in 
culcating  morals.  Their  writings  were  every  whit  as  pure 
and  clean  as  those  of  the  Boston-Cambridge  writers,  but 
they  did  not  directly  preach  philosophy  like  Emerson,  or 
specific  reforms  like 
Whittier  and  Lowell,  or 
personal  morals  like 
Longfellow;  and  they 
gave  more  heed  than 
some  of  these  men  to 
perfection  of  literary 
form.  All  wrote  poetry, 
and  all  were  influenced 
by  the  greater  English 
masters  of  the  lyric, 
and  strove  in  their 
own  work  for  the  sub 
tler  tones  and  music  of 
verse.  Taken  together 

they     constitute     the  Richard  Henry  Stoddard. 

second    most   important 

literary  group  of  the  mid-century.  Though  they  were 
not  the  equals  in  genius  of  the  greatest  New  Englanders. 
their  ideals  were  in  many  respects  those  which  American 
literature  has  since  followed,  and  in  some  ways  they  are 
deserving  of  more  attention  than  they  have  usually  received. 

'It  might  be  noted  that  none  of  these  men  were  NY\v  Yorkers 
h.v  birth,  or  attended  any  New  York  educational  institution.  Tay 
lor  was  from  Pennsylvania,  the  others  were  from  New  Kntrland. 


222     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

RICHARD  HENRY  STODDARD,  a  Massachusetts  boy  who 
came  to  New  York  at  the  age  of  ten,  and  who  was  self-sup 
porting  after  he  was  fifteen,  worked  as  shop  boy,  clerk, 
blacksmith,  molder,  and  carriage  painter  before  he  secured 
a  government  clerkship  that  enabled  him  to  cultivate  his 
strong  love  for  literature.  Stoddard  did  some  editing  and 
wrote  much  literary  criticism  and  some  miscellaneous  prose, 
but  is  most  important  as  a  poet.  He  had  a  fine  sense  of 
melody,  and  his  best  lyrics  are  musical  and  show  careful 
and  finished  workmanship.  His  longer  poems  were  also 
conscientiously  done,  but  are  uneven  in  quality. 

EDMUND  CLARKNCK  STKDMAN,  who  much  to  his  own  dis 
gust  was  often  called  the  "  banker  poet,"  came  from  Connecti 
cut  to  New  York  when  a  young  man,  and  became  a  broker. 
He  fell  in  with  the  literary  set,  contributed  to  newspapers, 
and  for  a  short  time  was  a  newspaper  correspondent,  but  for 
the  greater  part  of  his  life  he  was  in  Wall  Street.  His  highest 
interest  was  always,  however,  in  literature,  and  when  at  last 
after  many  financial  ups  and  downs  he  acquired  a  modest 
competence  he  retired  to  give  his  last  few  years  to  his  favor 
ite  pursuits.  Even  while  in  business  he  did  much  editing 
and  wrote  considerable  literary  criticism.  His  American 
Anthology  and  Poets  of  America  are  still  without  serious 
rivals  in  their  fields,  and  similar  works  on  the  Victorian  age 
in  England  have  much  merit.  His  own  poems  show  con 
siderable  variety.  Some  of  his  mildly  humorous  verses  and 
a  number  of  pieces  written  for  special  occasions  are  good. 
Still  better  are  some  short  idyls  of  New  England  country 
life,  and  a  few  other  lyrics  of  feeling. 

THOMAS  BAILEY  ALDRICH  was  born  in  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire,  he  spent  the  last  forty  years  of  his  life  in  and 
near  Boston,  and  for  a  time  he  was  editor  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly.  It  is  therefore  doubtful  whether  he  should  not 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


223 


have  been  discussed  among  the  New  England  writers.  But 
he  was  in  New  York  during  the  impressionable  years  of  his 
life,  he  began  his  literary  career  there,  and  his  ideals  were 
always  those  of  his  New  York  associates.  He  came  to  New 
York  at  the  age  of  sixteen  to  take  a  position  in  a  business 
office,  but  he  was  strongly  attracted  to  literature,  and  be 
tween  1855  and  1865  he  held  various  editorial  positions  and 
published  several  volumes 
of  prose  and  verse.  He 
was  always  fresh  and  spon 
taneous  in  his  work,  but  he 
valued  perfection  of  form 
even  more  than  did  his 
New  York  friends.  He  re 
vised  carefully  and  repeat 
edly,  and  he  rejected  much 
that  he  had  written,  so  that 
only  a  small  part  of  what 
he  published  stands  in  his 
collected  works.  His  best 
prose  is  doubtless  found  in 
the  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy,  and 
some  of  the  short  tales. 
The  former,  an  account  of 
a  boy  "  who  was  not  such 
a  very  bad  boy,"  is  largely 

autobiographical,  the  name  of  the  hero  being  given  as 
'  Tom  Bailey,"  and  his  native  town  as  "  Rivermouth." 
It  is  full  of  delicately  blended  humor  and  pathos,  and 
shows  an  understanding  of  boy  nature  and  of  all  other 
human  nature  as  well.  "  Marjory  Daw,"  a  masterly  hoax, 
is  the  most  popular  of  his  short  stories,  though  many  others 
show  almost  equal  charm  of  style  and  careful  handling 


Thonjas  Bailey  AJdrich. 


224     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

of  plot.  Like  Stoddard  and  Stedman  he  is  best  in  his 
brief  poems  —  "  Interludes,"  he  called  them.  These  com 
bine  the  perfection  of  form  which  we  associate  with  "  so 
ciety  verse,"  and  a  true  and  serious  insight  into  life.  There 
are  fine  things  in  his  longer  poems,  too,  but  these  are  hardly 
so  sure  to  last.  Aldrich  was  one  of  the  most  gifted  of  the 
New  York  writers,  and  later  was  one  of  the  most  im 
portant  members  of  the  younger  New  England  circle. 

Some  New  York  Editors  and  Miscellaneous  Writers.  - 
The  Xew  York  writers  still  to  be  discussed  had  in  most  in 
stances  no  close  connection  with  the  two  groups  already 
considered,  or  with  each  other.     Several  of  these  held  edi 
torial  positions  on  newspapers  and  magazines. 

NATHANIEL  PARKER  WILLIS,  a  native  of  Portland,  Maine, 
who  left  Xew  England  because  he  found  the  Puritanic 
strictness  oppressive,  was  for  many  years  associated  with 
popular  literary  periodicals  in  Xew  York.  He  was  one  of 
the  earliest  writers  of  travel  letters  from  abroad,  and  his 
prose  written  at  home  was  largely  newspaper  correspondence, 
afterward  collected  into  volumes.1  He  also  wrote  poems, 
among  which  were  several  paraphrases  of  Bible  narratives 
which  now  seem  thin  and  inartistic,  but  which  Avere  greatly 
admired  in  an  age  when  reverence  for  the  Bible  prevented 
people  from  thinking  of  it  as  literature.  Willis  himself  said 
that  he  preferred  to  do  journalistic  work,  to  write  for  the 
present  enjoyment  of  his  readers  rather  than  to  attempt 
more  ambitious  things  for  the  chance  of  lasting  fame;  and 
although  he  was  at  one  time  often  named  among  the  few 
greater  American  writers,  he  is  now  almost  forgotten. 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS,  a  somewhat  younger  man,  has 
already  been  mentioned  as  a  pupil  at  Brook  Farm.  He 

1  Some  of  the  titles  of  these  volumes,  such  as  Pencillings  by  the 
Way,  Loiterings  of  Travel,  Out-Doors  at  Idlewild,  Life  Here  and 
There,  etc.,  are  suggestive  of  the  nature  of  his  work. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


225 


George  William  Curtis. 


went  abroad,  visited  the 

I^ast,  wrote  some  delight 
ful  books  of  travel,  the 

Nile  Notes  of  a  Howadji 

and     The     Howadji    in 

Syria,   and   returned    to 

take  up  editorial  labors 

in    New   York.       Many 

of  his  best  essays  were 

written    for     the     Easy 

Chair     department      of 

Harper's  Monthly,  which 

he    long     conducted. 

Prue    and    I    and    the 

Potiphar  Papers  are  informal  volumes  satirizing  New  York 

life.      Curtis  was  also  a  polished  speaker,  and  his  orations 

on  public  questions  take 
high  rank. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher. 
—  A  greater  orator,  per 
haps  the  greatest  pul 
pit  orator  that  America 
has  produced,  was  the 
REVEREND  HENRY 
WARD  BEECHER,  long 
pastor  of  Plymouth 
Church,  Brooklyn. 
Beecher  was  liberal  in 
his  theological  beliefs, 
and  he  discussed  practi 
cal  questions  in  the 
pulpit  when  such  a 
course  was  less  common 


Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


226    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

than  it  is  now.  He  was  one  of  the  first  American  preachers 
whose  sermons  were  regularly  printed  in  the  newspapers, 
and  he  may  be  said  to  have  had  a  nation-wide  congrega 
tion.  More  interesting  to-day  than  his  sermons  are  his  ad 
dresses  on  political  and  social  topics.  He  was  a  leader  in 
the  antislavery  movement,  and  spoke  in  favor  of  the  cause 
both  at  home  and  abroad.  During  the  war  he  went  to 
England  and  endeavored  to  gain  public  sympathy  for  the 
North.  His  addresses  in  Liverpool,  Manchester,  and  other 
commercial  towns  where  Southern  sentiment  was  strong  are 
perhaps  the  best  modern  examples  of  skill  in  handling  a 
hostile  audience. 

New  York  Writers  of  Fiction.  —  Among  Xew  York  story 
tellers  was  1 1  KRAI  AX  MELVILLE,  who  went  to  sea  before  he 
was  twenty,  and  a  little  later  sailed  on  a  whaler  for  the 
South  Pacific  Ocean,  and  had  many  exciting  experiences 
on  ship  and  on  land  before  his  return.  Three  of  his  books, 
Typee,  Omoo,  and  White  Jacket,  tell  of  occurrences  on 
this  trip.  He  also  wrote  novels  of  adventure,  the  best  being 
Moby  Dick  or  the  White  Whale.  Both  the  autobiographical 
books  and  the  novels  are  full  of  excitement,  are  wholesome, 
and  well  told. 

William  Dean  Ho  wells.  —  The  greater  part  of  the  liter 
ary  work  of  MR.  WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS  has  been  done 
since  1883,  but  he  was  really  the  product  of  the  earlier  period. 
Born  in  Ohio  in  1837,  he,  like  many  other  American  writers, 
received  much  of  his  early  training  in  the  offices  of  local 
newspapers.  In  1860  he  wrote  a  campaign  life  of  Lincoln, 
and  a  year  later  was  rewarded  by  an  appointment  as  consul 
to  Venice.  He  had  already  contributed  poems  to  the  Atlan 
tic  Monthly,  and  on  a  brief  visit  to  Boston  had  met  Lowell 
and  Holmes.  While  in  Venice  he  devoted  his  leisure  to  the 
study  of  Italian  art  and  literature;  and  throughout  life  his 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         227 


scholarly  habits  and  interests  have  amply  made  up  for  his 
lack  of  a  college  training.  As  a  result  of  his  first  experience 
abroad  he  published  two 
charming  volumes,  Vene 
tian  Life  and  Italian 
Journeys.  After  his  re 
turn  to  America  he  was 
connected  with  several 
Xew  York  papers.  Then 
he  served  for  fifteen 
years  as  assistant  editor 
and  editor  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  and  since  1886 
has  been  associated  with 
Harper's  Magazine  and 
for  a  time  with  the  Cos 
mopolitan  Magazine,  Xew 
York.1 

Mr.  Howells  has  been 
a  tireless  literary  worker. 
The  latest  list  of  his 
writings  includes  seventy 
titles,  not  counting  new 
editions  and  works  of  which  he  is  the  editor;  and  the 
greater  part  of  his  contributions  to  magazines  has  never  been 
collected.  The  list  includes  travels,  poetry,  and  miscella 
neous  and  critical  essays,  but  the  author's  most  important 
work  is  as  a  writer  of  fiction.  He  is  the  chief  of  the  realists  — 


William  Dean  Howells. 


1  It  will  be  noticed  that  Howells,  like  Aldrich  and  James,  might 
be  given  a  place  with  the  New  England  writers.  The  careers  of 
these  men  are  a  reminder  that  before  the  close  of  the  period  under 
consideration  the  old  sectional  lines  which  had  existed  for  two  hun 
dred  and  fifty  years  were  fast  breaking  down. 


228     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

the  novelists  who  believe  in  portraying  life  as  it  is,  selecting 
their  material,  to  be  sure,  but  not  coloring  or  idealizing  it.1 
In  his  later  years  he  has  been  somewhat  influenced  by  Tolstoi, 
the  great  Russian  novelist,  whom  he  greatly  admires.  While 
he  is  not  in  the  least  Puritanic,  he  is  wholly  free  from  the 
tendency  to  choose  the  morbid  and  the  unwholesome,  as 
some  European  disciples  of  realism  or  naturalism  have  done. 
Even  those  who  disapprove  his  work  can  offer  no  objection 
to  the  morals  or  the  good  taste  of  his  stories.  These  un 
friendly  critics  complain  that  his  plots  lack  definiteness, 
that  the  incidents  are  trivial,  and  that  his  men  and  women 
have  not  great  souls  which  inspire  the  reader.  His  admirers 
point  to  the  naturalness  and  the  genuine  human  truth  of 
both  actions  and  characters,  and  say  that  a  real  man  or 
woman  is  far  more  convincing  than  an  impossible  idealized 
hero,  or  a  made-up  villain.  As  was  said  in  the  discussion  of 
Cooper,  the  question  is  one  of  temperament;  but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Howells  has  done  what  he  set  out  to 
do,  and  has  made  clean,  readable  stories.  His  style,  while 
sometimes  characterized  as  too  clever,  is  charming,  and  he 
has  an  ever-present  but  never  boisterous  humor.  Besides 
his  novels  Mr.  Howells  has  written  short  stories,  several 
farces,  and  short  humorous  narratives  in  dialogue  form.2 

1  For  Mr.  Howells's  own  presentation  of  his  theory  see  his  very 
interesting  Criticism  and  Fiction. 

2  Among  the  novels  most  read  are   Their  Wedding  Journey,  A 
Chance  Acquaintance,  A  Foregone  Conclusion,  The  Lady  of  the  Aroos- 
took,  A  Modern  Instance,  The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham,  A  Hazard  of 
New  Fortunes.     It  is  hard  to  say  which  is  the  best.     Many  of  Mr. 
Howells's  admirers  would  give  first  rank  to  The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham, 
but  most  of  the  others  on  the  list  and  some  not  named  would  receive 
many  suffrages  for  this  position.     Several  of  the  later  short  stories 
are  collected  in  the  volume  Between  the  Dark  and  the  Daylight.     The 
best  known  farces  are  "The  Parlor  Car,"  "The  Sleeping  Car,"  and 
"The  Elevator." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


229 


Henry  James.  —  Mr.  Howells's  greatest  rival  in  realism 
is  MR.  HENRY  JAMES.  Born  in  New  York  City  in  1843, 
Mr.  James  received  part  of  his  education  at  Harvard  and 
part  abroad,  and  has  spent  most  of  the  time  since  1869  in 
France  and  England.  He,  too,  has  been  a  most  voluminous 
writer.  His  realism  differs  from  that  of  Mr.  Howells  in 
that  he  goes  deeper  into  the 
psychology  of  his  characters, 
or  at  any  rate  leads  the 
reader  to  philosophize  more 
about  them.  He  is  fond  of 
studying  men  and  women  in 
situations  which  are  not 
quite  natural  for  them,  or 
which  they  do  not  quite 
understand.  Many  of  his 
novels,  especially  those  of 
earlier  date,  are  of  the  "  in 
ternational  "  type,  in  which 
representatives  of  different 
countries  are  brought  to 
gether,  and  in  which  part 
of  the  complication  comes 
from  the  fact  that  they  do 
not  fully  comprehend  each  others'  standards  and  views  of 
life.1  In  recent  years  Mr.  James's  philosophical  interest 

1  This  choice  of  subject  is  hinted  at  in  such  titles  as  The  American, 
The  Europeans,  An  International  Episode.  Mr.  James's  early  tale, 
Daisy  Miller,  in  which  a  pure  but  untrained  and  overindependent 
American  girl  shocks  the  European  sense  of  propriety,  was  resented 
l>y  some  of  the  author's  countrywomen,  who  thought  the  portrayal 
unpatriotic  and  unchivalrous.  Mr.  James  is  especially  fond  of 
getting  a  group  of  different  characters  together,  as  in  an  international 
pension,  or  an  English  country-house  party. 


Henry  James. 


230     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

or  some  other  cause  has  brought  about  a  change  in  his 
style,  and  even  in  his  narrative  method.  His  writings  have 
become  involved,  abstruse,  and  hard  to  follow,  so  that  they 
give  little  pleasure  to  many  readers  who  are  enthusiastic 
over  his  earlier  work.  Mr.  James  is  not  only  a  novelist, 
but  one  of  the  greatest  recent  masters  of  the  short  story. 
Most  of  his  stories  are  somewhat  longer  than  the  average  of 
those  in  the  popular  American  magazines,  and  are  more 
solid  in  content.  They  show  great  variety,  and  are  organized 
and  told  with  much  skill.  Many  of  the  author's  plots  do 
not  end  with  any  great  catastrophe  or  striking  climax,  and 
in  general  his  work  does  not  appeal  to  those  who  want  an 
exciting  story  for  the  sake  of  the  story.  He  is  not  much 
approved,  either,  by  those  who  demand  that  their  fiction 
shall  teach  an  obvious  moral,  and  his  character  portrayals 
and  incidents  are  less  lightly  entertaining  than  those  of  Mr. 
Howells.  For  these  reasons  he  has  a  restricted  audience. 
The  reader  who  is  willing  to  think  a  little  over  his  fiction, 
and  who  finds  the  study  of  men  and  women  perennially 
interesting,  is  likely  to  rank  his  earlier  work  very  high.1 

Some  New  York  Writers  of  Verse.  —  ALICE  and  PHOEBE 
GARY,  two  sisters  attracted  from  their  Ohio  home  to  the 
metropolis,  wrote  prose  and  graceful  verses,  and  are  among 
the  most  genuine  and  unaffected  of  American  poetesses.2 

1  Among  the  better  novels  and  tales  of  moderate  length  are  A 
Passionate  Pilgrim,   The  American,  Daisy  Miller,  An  International 
Episode,  Roderick    Hudson,   The  Madonna  of  the  Future,   The  Por 
trait  of  a  Lady.     It  is  hard  to  choose  among  short  stories,  but  a 
tentative  list  for  first  acquaintance  might  include  "The  Lesson  of 
the  Master,"  "The  Wheel  of  Time,"  "The  Private  Life,"  "The 
Tone  of  Time,"  "Sir  Edmund  Orme." 

2  Phoebe  Gary  is  the  author  of    the  familiar  hymn  beginning, 
"One  sweetly  solemn  thought,"  and  of  the  hopeful  juvenile  poem, 

"Suppose,  my  little  lady, 
Your  doll  should  break  her  head." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


231 


EMMA  LAZARUS,  a  precocious  New  York  girl  of  Jewish  de 
scent,  wrote  late  in  the  period  poems,  plays,  and  miscella 
neous  prose.  During  her  more  mature  years  her  work  was 
largely  influenced  by  her  interest  in  movements  for  the 
betterment  of  the  Jewish  people.  She  had  energy  and  fire, 
and  some  of  her  lyrics,  especially,  show  a  high  degree  of 
artistic  finish. 

Literary  Conditions  in  Philadelphia.  —  As  was  remarked 
in  the  discussion  of  the  preceding  period,  Philadelphia  has 
always  been  a  literary  center  of  im 
portance,  but  has  produced  few  men 
of  letters  of  the  first  rank.  Since  the 
days  of  Franklin  Philadelphia  pub 
lishers  have  given  special  attention 
to  scientific  works  and  to  popular 
annuals  and  magazines. 

Bayard  Taylor. — The  most  im 
portant  of  the  Philadelphia  writers 
between  1833  and  1883  was  BAYARD 
TAYLOR,  whose  association  with 
Stoddard,  Stedman,  and  Aldrich  in 
New  York  has  already  been  men 
tioned.  A  native  of  rural  Penn 
sylvania,  he  was  early  apprenticed  to  a  country  printer, 
and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  published  his  first  volume  of  poems. 
He  then  went  abroad  for  two  years,  and  contributed  to 
newspapers  a  series  of  travel  letters  later  collected  under  the 
title  of  I'icirx  Afoot.  This  was  the  first  of  his  volumes 
descriptive  of  travels  which  before  his  death  covered  a 
great  part  of  the  globe.  When  not  traveling,  he  lectured 
and  held  various  editorial  positions.  In  1S7X  lie  was  ap 
pointed  United  States  minister  to  Germany,  but  died  im 
mediately  after  taking  up  his  official  duties.  Besides  his 


Bayard  Taylor. 


232     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


books  of  travel  he  wrote  essays,  short  stories,  novels,  poems, 
and  dramatic  works,  and  made  a  verse  translation  of  Goethe's 
FauM.  His  best  work  is  found  in  this  translation,  the  books 
of  travel,  and  the  shorter  poems. 

With  the  improvement  of  processes  of  illustration  and 
with  the  development  of  "  globe-trotting  "  as  a  national 
habit,  the  descriptive  book  of  travel  has  largely  gone  out  of 

fashion.  It  was  an  important 
form  of  writing  in  its  day, 
and  Bayard  Taylor  was  per 
haps  the  greatest  American 
master  of  the  form.  He  was 
a  good  observer,  he  knew 
what  would  interest  others, 
i  $  JiE*&sSM^  anc^  ^6  wr°te  m  clear  and 

y  BflFlftm  •    p}easin£  Prose-  While  there 

may  be  some  differences  of 
«!«,  opinion  as  to    which    of    his 

-;  n  v|  poems  are  best,  many  readers 

will  find  most  enjoyment  in 
the  Poeins  of  the  Orient, 
published  when  he  was 
thirty  years  of  age.  These 

A    "snap-shot"     of    William    Dean     &re     mostlv     lvriCS,    SOHie     of 
Howells  and  Bayard  Taylor.  .    „  "        *  01     n 

them  influenced   by  bhelley. 

The  most  popular  is  the  "  Bedouin  Love  Song."  Taylor 
always  agreed  with  his  New  York  friends  in  viewing  litera 
ture  as  an  art  which  called  for  labor  and  pains,  and  in  his 
later  years  he  became  highly  critical  of  his  own  work  and 
wrought  out  some  of  his  poems  with  such  care  that  they 
seem  lacking  in  naturalness.  This  is  especially  true  of  his 
two  long  and  ambitious  dramatic  pieces,  "  The  Masque  of 
the  Gods  "  and  "  Prince  Deukalion,"  though  through  both 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         233 

these  are  scattered  fine  lyrics.  The  translation  of  Faust 
is  a  thorough  and  careful  piece  of  work,  and  has  been  ranked 
by  many  scholars  as  the  best  rendering  of  Goethe's  master 
piece  into  English  verse.  Taylor  was  a  man  whose  genius 
always  seemed  to  promise  more  than  he  actually  achieved. 
He  did  not  win  a  place  among  the  greatest  American 
authors,  but  both  his  personality  and  his  position  make 
him  an  interesting  study. 

Some  Lesser  Philadelphia  Writers.  —  The  next  in  im 
portance  of  the  Pennsylvania  writers  was  GEORGE  H.  BOKER, 
a  graduate  of  Princeton  and  a  wealthy  and  distinguished 
citizen  of  Philadelphia.  His  short  poems,  especially  some 
of  his  sonnets,  are  good,  but  his  best  work  is  in  four  blank 
verse  tragedies,  and  the  best  of  these  is  Francesca  da  Rimini. 
This  is  somewhat  old-fashioned  in  structure,  but  it  is  one  of 
the  best  acting  dramas  based  on  the  immortal  story  from 
Dante,  and  is  still  sometimes  played  by  the  best  American 
tragedians.  THOMAS  BUCHANAN  READ  was  a  versatile 
Pennsylvanian  who  finally  became  a  painter  and  a  poet. 
Some  of  his  poems  are  long  and  ambitious,  but  he  is  likely 
to  be  remembered  as  the  author  of  "  Sheridan's  Ride  "  and 
one  or  two  other  brief  poems. 

THE  SOUTH 

General  Conditions  in  the  South.  —  The  South  had  fewer 
great  cities  than  the  North,  and  less  adequate  publishing 
facilities.  Baltimore,  Richmond,  and  Charleston  supported 
creditable  literary  periodicals,  all  of  which  had  an  air  of 
gentlemanly  leisure  and  culture,  but  lacked  the  energy  of 
the  better  Northern  magazines.  Before  the  war  Southern 
men  of  ability  were  likely  to  enter  law  and  politics,  rather 
than  more  distinctly  literary  callings,  and  the  feeling  still 


234     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

existed  in  some  quarters  that  literature  was  an  admirable 
diversion,  but  hardly  a  creditable  profession  for  a  gentleman. 
The  war,  while  it  called  forth  many  songs  and  expressions 
of  devotion  to  the  Confederate  cause,  tended  to  paralyze 
literature.  Since  the  South  suffered  relatively  more  than 
the  North,  recovery  was  slow,  and  few  writers  who  represent 
the  "  Xew  South  "  really  belong  to  the  period  before  1883. 

Edgar  Allan  Poe.  —  By  far  the  ablest  writer  of  Southern 
ancestry  who  flourished  before  the  war  was  EDGAR  ALLAN 
POE.  His  father  was  of  respectable  Southern  connections, 
but  had  alienated  himself  from  his  family  by  going  on  the 
stage  and  marrying  an  actress.  Edgar  was  born  in  1809, 
in  Boston,  where  his  parents  chanced  to  be  playing.  Both 
father  and  mother  died  when  he  was  very  young,  and  he 
was  taken  into  the  family  of  a  Mr.  Allan  of  Richmond.  In 
1815  Mr.  Allan  went  to  England,  and  from  his  sixth  to  his 
eleventh  year  Edgar  was  in  a  boy's  school  near  London.1 
Later  he  spent  one  year  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  where 
he  made  a  good  showing  in  his  studies,  but  like  most  students 
of  the  institution  at  that  time  indulged  in  gambling.  The 
gambling  debts  and  perhaps  other  delinquencies  on  Poe's 
part  led  to  an  estrangement  from  the  Allans,2  and  the  boy 

1  The  picture  of  English  school  life  in  Poe's  tale,  William  Wilson, 
is  said  to  be  drawn  from  the  author's  own  experiences. 

2  By  this  time  Mr.  Allan  had  accumulated  considerable  property, 
though  when  Poe  entered  his  household  he  was  in  very  moderate 
circumstances.     The   stories   sometimes   met  with,    that   Poe  was 
reared  in  great  luxury,  that  he  acquired  his  taste  for  liquor  at  Mr. 
Allan's  table,  etc.,  are  part  of  the  bewildering  tradition  that  grew 
up  after  Poe's  death.     Poe's  real  friend  was  Mrs.  Allan,  and  it  is 
doubtful  if  her  husband  was  ever  much  in  sympathy  with  the  boy. 
The  final  break  did  not  come  until  Mrs.  Allan  was  dead  and  Mr. 
Allan  had  married  again.     The  new  wife  was  clearly  hostile  to  Poe, 
but  where  the  justice  of  the  quarrel  lay  is  not  easy  to  determine. 
An  obvious  though  perhaps  an  unfair  supposition  is  that  she  did 
not  wish  Poe  to  share  the  inheritance  with  her  own  child. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         235 


Edgar  Allan  Poe. 


236    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

who  had  expected  to  inherit  a  comfortable  property  found 
himself  adrift  in  the  world,  where  he  had  neither  the  tem 
perament  nor  the  training  to  make  his  way.  He  enlisted 
in  the  army,  where  his  record  was  so  good  that  friends  se 
cured  for  him  an  appointment  at  West  Point.  He  soon  tired 
of  a  military  career,  however,  and  in  1831  was  dismissed  for 
deliberate  neglect  of  his  military  duties.  It  is  somewhat 
uncertain  what  he  did  for  the  next  year  or  two,  but  in  1833 
he  entered  several  tales  and  poems  in  the  contest  for  a 
prize  offered  by  a  Baltimore  paper.  He  won  not  only  the 
prize,  but  the  attention  of  some  literary  men  of  Baltimore, 
who  secured  for  him  an  editorship  on  the  Southern  Literary 
Messenger  at  Richmond,  —  one  of  the  leading  magazines 
of  the  South.  A  little  later  he  married  his  cousin,  Virginia 
Clemm.  From  1837  to  his  death  in  1X49  he  lived  in  Phila 
delphia  and  New  York,  where  he  was  much  of  the  time  em 
ployed  in  editorial  work.1  His  first  volume,  Tamerlane 
and  other  Poems,  was  published  anonymously  when  he  was 
eighteen  years  of  age,  and  was  followed  two  years  later,  in 
1829,  by  Al  Aaraaf,  Tamerlane  and  other  Poems,  and  by  a 
third  volume  of  poems  in  1831.  His  longest  prose  tale,  the 
Narrative  of  Arthur  Gordon  Pym,  was  issued  in  book  form 
in  1838;  collections  of  stories  were  published  in  1839  and 
1845,  and  a  volume  of  poems  in  1845.  Most  of  his  writings 
first  appeared  in  the  periodicals  of  which  he  was  editor. 
The  first  collected  edition  of  his  works  was  published  shortly 
after  his  death. 

Poe's  work  was  but  slightly  appreciated  in  his  lifetime.2 

1  In  Philadelphia  he  was  connected  successively  with  Burton's 
Gentleman's  Magazine  and  Graham's  Magazine;   in  New  York  with 
N.  P.  Willis's  paper,  The  Evening  Mirror,  and  later  with  the  Broad 
way  Journal,  of  which  he  was  for  a  short  time  proprietor. 

2  Poe  tried  in  vain  to  find  publishers  who  would  issue  his  works. 
He  received  nothing  for  the  first  collection  of  his  tales  except  twenty 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         237 

Lack  of  sympathy  with  the  prevailing  literary  fashions,  out 
spoken  independence  as  a  critic,  an  occasional  display  of 
bad  temper,  and  certain  personal  weaknesses  made  his  career 
troubled  and  precarious.  His  arduous  editorial  duties, 
which  often  included  the  filling  of  space  with  his  own  writings, 
never  brought  him  larger  remuneration  than  that  which  the 
most  insignificant  reporter  on  a  daily  paper  now  earns.  His 
struggle  with  poverty  was  made  the  more  painful  by  the 
long  and  hopeless  illness  of  his  wife.  It  was  under  such 
circumstances  that  Poe  wrote;  and  while  his  works  are 
not,  as  some  critics  have  assumed,  autobiographical,  they 
were  necessarily  influenced  somewhat  by  his  life.1 

copies  of  the  book  for  distribution  among  friends  ;  and  when  two  or 
three  years  later  he  offered  the  same  publishers  another  collection 
on  the  same  terms  they  declined,  saying  that  the  first  venture  had 
not  paid  expenses.  To-day  probably  more  than  twenty-five  Ameri 
can  publishers  issue  editions  of  the  tales,  and  the  annual  sale  must 
run  into  the  tens  of  thousands  of  volumes. 

1  It  is  most  unfortunate  that  one  cannot  study  Poe  without  con 
sidering  the  numerous  stories  concerning  his  life  and  moral  char 
acter.  When  he  died  he  entrusted  the  editing  of  his  works  to  the 
Reverend  Rufus  W.  Griswold.  Griswold  seems  to  have  cherished 
a  grudge  on  account  of  some  harsh  criticisms  which  Poe  had  passed 
on  his  books.  At  all  events  he  prefixed  to  his  edition  of  Poe  a  mem 
oir  which  is  unreliable  in  many  statements,  and  which  it  seems  hard 
to  believe  was  not  deliberately  unjust  and  unfair.  His  picture  of 
Poe  as  a  diabolical  monster,  moving  in  gloom  and  believing  that  his 
soul  was  hopelessly  lost,  took  the  popular  fancy,  and  the  most  ex 
travagant  romances  about  the  life  of  the  poet  gained  currency. 
Even  to-day  the  judicially  minded  person  sometimes  finds  it  hard 
to  know  what  to  believe.  The  facts  seem  to  be,  however,  that 
during  most  of  his  life  Poe  suffered  from  occasional  fits  of  intem 
perance  which  sometimes  interfered  with  his  holding  regular  posi 
tions.  He  was  never  an  habitual  drunkard,  and  he  sometimes  went 
for  long  periods  without  tasting  liquor.  But  total  abstinence,  rela 
tively  easy  now,  was  sometimes  almost  impossible  when  every 
gentleman  took  wine,  and  when  a  refusal  to  drink  might  be  con 
sidered  as  a  slight  upon  one's  host  or  hostess  ;  and  Poe's  constitution 
seems  to  have  been  such  that  a  single  glass  produced  symptoms  of 


238    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Poe's  important  writings  fall  into  three  classes,  literary 
criticisms,  prose  tales,  and  poems.  His  criticisms  are  found 
in  reviews  contributed  to  the  magazines  of  which  he  was 
editor,  and  in  one  or  two  more  general  essays,  such  as  "  The 
Poetic  Principle  "  and  "  The  Philosophy  of  Composition." 
Poe  believed  that  literature  is  an  art.  He  opposed  the  "  in 
spiration  "  theory  of  poetry,  so  common  in  his  day,  and  held 
that  a  poem  requires  painstaking  and  repeated  labor  as 
much  as  a  picture  or  a  statue.1  He  defined  poetry  as  "  the 
rhythmical  creation  of  beauty,"  the  object  of  which  was  to 
elevate  the  soul  and  give  the  highest  pleasure,  not  to  teach 
specific  lessons.  There  was  nothing  new  in  this;  but  he 
went  farther  than  most  critics  who  had  held  the  same  general 
view,  and  announced  that  every  poem  should  be  dominated 
by  one  emotion,  and  that  since  the  emotions  can  be  aroused 
only  for  a  little  time,  a  true  poem  must  be  short.  He  held, 
too,  that  in  the  highest  beauty,  which  is  the  true  theme  of 
poetry,  is  ever  an  element  of  sadness.  This  view  of  course 
greatly  restricted  the  poet,  both  in  choice  of  subject  and  in 
the  length  and  structure  of  his  work.  Poe  was  the  first 
critic  to  lay  down  laws  for  the  short  story  and  to  recognize 
its  importance  as  a  literary  form.  Indeed,  he  ranked  it 

intoxication  which  in  case  of  most  men  would  result  only  from  ex 
treme  overindulgence.  After  the  death  of  his  wife  his  self-control 
weakened  somewhat,  he  may  have  made  use  of  drugs,  and  it  is 
probable,  though  not  certain,  that  his  death  resulted  from  intoxi 
cation.  During  most  of  his  life  his  excesses,  though  not  to  be  ex 
cused,  were  not  frequent,  and  were  such  as  would  have  been  glossed 
over  if  they  had  been  committed  by  a  more  popular  man.  He 
occasionally  showed  vindictiveness  and  bad  temper,  and  was  a  trifle 
double  faced  in  speaking  of  his  friends.  None  of  the  other  charges 
against  his  moral  character  has  been  substantiated. 

1  It  should  be  noted  that  Poe  was  nearly  a  generation  earlier 
than  the  New  Yorkers  whose  views  of  poetry  were  somewhat  simi 
lar,  and  that  his  theory  was  more  fully  elaborated  and  more  definite 
than  theirs. 


239 


higher  than  the  novel,  for  reasons  similar  to  those  which  led 
him  to  prefer  the  short  to  the  long  poem.  He  held  that  the 
tale,  like  the  poem,  should  be  dominated  by  a  single  emo 
tional  effect,  to  the  production  of  which  everything  from 
beginning  to  end  should  tend.  His  criticisms  of  particular 
authors  were  in  most  cases  fair,  though  occasionally  he 
showed  bitterness  and  prejudice.  He  was  out  of  sympathy 
with  the  Xew  England  writers,  partly  because  he  disap- 


Poe's  cottage  at  Fordham,  New  York. 

proved  of  their  didacticism,  partly,  it  sometimes  seems, 
because  he  was  jealous  of  their  popularity.  Still,  he  was 
almost  always  just,  even  to  them.1 

Most  of  Poe's  writings  conform  to  his  theories.  With 
the  exception  of  the  Narrative  of  Arthur  (lordon  Pym  and 

1  His  charge  of  "plagiarism"  against  Longfellow  has  been  men 
tioned,  but  this  is  explained  by  his  unwarranted  definition  of  the 
word ;  and  he  always  gave  Longfellow  higher  rank  than  most 
critics  give  him  to-day. 


240    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

one  or  two  other  tales  of  adventure  whose  realism  suggests 
DeFoe  each  of  his  stories  is  dominated  by  a  single  emotional 
effect,  and  is  short.  The  presentation  of  the  highest  beauty 
he  held  to  be  the  province  of  the  poem,  and  in  the  tales  he 
restricted  himself  to  other  effects,  often  mystery  and  terror, 
and  too  often  pure  horror.  Poe  was  interested  in  many 
problems  and  ideas  that  concern  the  relation  of  the  soul  and 
the  body, — the  thought  of  trance  that  cannot  be  distin 
guished  from  death,  of  mesmerism  and  kindred  arts,  of  the 
possibility  that  the  body  retains  something  of  feeling  and 
thought  in  the  grave;  and  he  was  fond  of  studying  various 
aspects  of  insanity  and  morbid  psychology.  In  the  tales 
which  are  concerned  with  these  themes  he  often  introduced 
horrible  and  even  repulsive  details,  —  evidently  unaware 
of  the  effect  that  they  might  have  on  others,  as  the  medical 
student  sometimes  forgets  that  others  may  be  shocked  by 
what  are  to  him  the  everyday  matters  of  the  dissecting 
room.1 

Many  of  Poe's  tales  are  perfunctory  writing  produced  to 
fill  space  in  the  journals  of  which  he  was  editor,  and  included 
in  his  collected  works  since  his  death.  There  is,  however,  a 
large  body  of  better  tales,  carefully  wrought  out,  and  often 
several  times  revised.  Only  a  few  of  these  may  be  men 
tioned  as  examples  of  the  way  in  which  the  author  dealt 
with  favorite  ideas.  '  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher  " 
introduces  the  thought  of  the  trance  indistinguishable  from 
death,  and  also  of  a  spiritual  or  mystical  relation  between 

1  Some  critics  have  held  that  Poe  wrote  only  for  the  purpose  of 
making  the  reader's  flesh  creep ;  and  many  readers  are  content  to 
get  only  the  thrill  of  horror  from  his  tales.  This  is  to  take  an  un 
worthy  view  of  the  author.  Even  in  the  most  horrible  of  the  tales 
is  something  besides  the  horror,  a  study  of  some  problem  or  some 
aspect  of  human  nature.  When  the  horror  obscures  this,  its  use 
must  be  condemned  as  an  artistic  blemish,  not  praised. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         241 

man  and  material  tilings.  "  The  Descent  into  the  Mael 
strom  "  and  "  The  Pit  and  the  Pendulum  "  study  a  human 
mind  agitated  by  terrors  that  come  in  one  case  from  the 
forces  of  nature,  in  the  other  from  the  designs  of  man.  "  The 
Cask  of  Arriontillado,"  one  of  the  best  proportioned  of  the 
tales,  is  one  of  many  studies  of  diseased  or  abnormal  minds. 
Another  group,  including  "  Ligeia,"  which  Poe  considered  his 
best  tale,  contain  fantastic  speculations  as  to  the  mystery 
of  life  and  death,  and  the  relation  of  body  and  soul.  Poe 
was  the  originator  of  the  detective  story.  He  wrote  three 
detective  stories  proper,  "  The  Murders  in  the  Rue  Morgue," 
"The  Mystery  of  Marie  Roget,"  and  "The  Purloined 
Letter,"  all  of  which  have  the  same  hero,  Dupin,  who  is 
accompanied  by  a  friend  who  tells  the  story.  The  same 
plan  has  been  followed  by  the  writers  of  detective  stories 
since  Poe's  day,  many  of  whom  have  also  taken  hints 
from  his  characters  themselves  and  from  his  plots.  With 
these  tales  may  also  be  grouped  "  The  Gold-Bug,"  a  story 
of  the  discovery  of  hidden  treasure.1  The  range  of  Poe's 
genius  as  a  story-teller  may  be  seen  by  comparing  representa 
tives  of  the  groups  of  tales  last  mentioned  —  say  "  Ligeia  " 
and  "  The  Gold-Bug."  The  one  presents  the  extremes  of 
mystical  speculation,  and  recounts  occurrences  that  are 
made  to  seem  plausible  only  by  throwing  a  mysterious  at 
mosphere  about  all,  and  laying  the  scene  as  it  were  "  out  of 
space,  out  of  time."  The  other  tells  of  an  unlikely  but 
physically  possible  experience,  and,  like  the  tales  of  ad 
venture,  secures  the  appearance  of  reality  by  locating  the 


1  In  this  story  the  location  of  the  treasure  is  discovered  through 

a  cipher  memorandum.     Poe  was  interested  in  cipher  writing,  and 

published  two  or  three  articles  on  the  subject.     It  may  have  been 

this  interest  which  led  to  "The  Gold-Bug"  and  the  detective  stories 

—  tales  of  ratiocination,  Poe  called  them. 


242    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


scene  definitely,   and  by  giving  numbers  of  homely  and 
realistic  details. 

In  his  early  years  Poe  published  two  long  poems,  "  Tamer 
lane  "  and  "  Al  Aaraaf."  After  he  was  twenty,  however,  he 
wrote  nothing  in  verse,  except  a  fragment  of  a  drama,  which 
did  not  conform  to  his  theory  that  a  poem  should  be  short, 
and  should  produce  a  single  emotional  effect.  In  accordance 
with  his  conception  of  beauty  his  subjects  almost  always 
have  an  element  of  sadness  —  often,  as  in  "  To  Helen," 

"The  Sleeper,"  "Annabel  Lee," 
"Ulalume,"  "The  Raven,"  and 
others  sadness  associated  with  the 
death  of  a  beautiful  and  beloved 
woman.  Foe's  juvenile  versifica 
tion  showed  some  indebtedness  to 
Byron  and  to  Moore,  but  he  soon 
developed  a  poetic  manner  of  his 
own.  Two  noticeable  peculiarities 
of  his  verse  were  the  use  of  a 
special  poetic  vocabulary,  and  of 
the  repetend  —  that  is,  of  lines 
and  phrases  repeated  with  varying 

Title-page  of  Poe  s  first  vol-  .  .  . 

ume  of  poems.  emphasis  and  with  or  without  slight 

variation  in  meaning.1      The  bulk 

of  Poe's  poetry  is  small.      Many  of  his  best  poems  were 
revised    time    after    time    almost   throughout   his    literary 

1  The  most  conspicuous  examples  of  favorite  words  in  the  poems 
are  proper  names,  like  "Ligeia,"  "Lenore."  Certain  words  which 
he  employed  in  but  a  single  passage  give  the  same  effect  of  poetic 
strangeness  —  e.g.,  "scoriae,"  "boreal,"  "Yaanek,"  from  Ulalume. 
The  use  of  the  repetend  is  seen  in  "The  Raven,"  more  ingeniously 
if  less  artistically  in  "The  Bells,"  and  most  skillfully  of  all  in  "Ul 
alume"  and  "Annabel  Lee."  With  this  compare  the  repetition  of 
phrases  in  Coleridge's  "Ancient  Mariner." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         243 

life.  Among  those  which  date  in  their  original  forms  from 
a  relatively  early  period  were  "  To  Helen,"  "  Israfel,"  and 
"  The  Sleeper."  In  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  he  pro 
duced  another  group  of  poems  of  which  the  most  notable 
are  "The  Raven,"  "Ulalume,"  and  "Annabel  Lee."  Each 
of  these  presents  a  single  emotional  effect,  and  shows  the 
mastery  of  verse  form  which  he  had  attained  —  a  mastery 
which  some  readers  feel  shows  too  much  conscious  art,  but 
which  was  the  legitimate  aim  of  a  man  with  his  theories 
of  poetry. 1 

Poe  was  out  of  harmony  with  the  literary  tastes  and  ideals 
of  his  time.  Emerson  referred  to  him  as  "  the  jingle  man," 
and  New  Englanders  generally  felt  that  as  his  work  taught 
no  definite  moral  lesson  it  was  of  little  value.  The  mass  of 
readers  looked  on  him  as  an  erratic  and  misguided  genius, 
and  for  years  his  name  suggested  his  intemperance  and  a  few 
of  his  more  obvious  and  in  most  instances  less  excellent 
works  —  "  The  Raven  "  and  "  The  Bells  "  in  verse,  and  a 
few  of  the  tales  of  excessive  horror,  such  as  "  The  Black 
Cat."  His  recognition  abroad  came  more  rapidly;  and  it 
was  partly  through  the  influence  of  foreign  critics,  some  of 
whom  did  not  hesitate  to  call  him  the  greatest  American  man 
of  letters,  that  his  countrymen  came  to  feel  his  importance 
in  literary  history.  He  died  at  the  age  of  forty;  and  he 
wrote  under  great  disadvantages,  some  of  which  were  and 

1  In  connection  with  "The  Raven"  the  student  may  read  "The 
Philosophy'  of  Composition,"  which  purports  to  tell  how  the  poem 
was  planned  and  written.  "The  Philosophy  of  Composition"  was 
really  a  thrust  at  the  "inspiration"  theory  of  poetry,  and  believers 
in  this  theory  were  somewhat  irritated  by  it,  and  refused  to  accept 
it  seriously.  Poe  did,  no  doubt,  color  the  facts  a  little  when  he  told 
how  deliberately  and  mechanically  the  poem  was  constructed,  but 
there  seems  to  be  no  reason  for  doubting  the  essential  accuracy  <>f 
his  account. 


244    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


some  of  which  were  not  due  to  his  own  faults.  In  his  per 
functory  and  journalistic  work  there  was  something  of  the 
"  sheer  fudge  "  l  which  Lowell  mentions  so  prominently. 
But  he  left  a  considerable  body  of  poems  and  prose  which  is 
purely  artistic  in  conception  and  workmanship.  He  showed 
new  possibilities  in  the  music  of  English  verse.  He  laid 
down  what  is  still  often  quoted  as  the  best  brief  statement 
of  the  principles  that  should  govern  in  the  construction  of 

the  short  story,  and  he 
himself  wrote  a  great 
body  of  tales  which  are 
now  classic  and  which 
have  served  as  models 
for  many  later  writers. 
To-day  his  position  in 
American  literature 
seems  at  least  as  secure 
as  that  of  any  of  his 
contemporaries. 
The  Charleston  Group 
-  William  Gilmore 
Simms.  —  The  most  im 
portant  group  of  Southern 
writers  during  the  mid-century  was  to  be  found  in  Charleston, 
and  numbered  among  its  members  WILLIAM  GILMORE  SIMMS, 
HENRY  TIMROD,  and  PAUL  HAMILTON  HAYNE.  SIMMS,  the 
oldest  and  the  most  important  of  the  group,  was  born  in 
Charleston  in  1806.  He  received  relatively  little  schooling, 
and  before  he  was  twenty-one  had  turned  his  attention  first 
to  medicine  and  then  to  law,  and  had  finally  become  an  editor. 

i  "There  comes  Poe  with  his  raven,  like  Barnaby  Rudge, 
Three  fifths  of  him  genius,  and  two  fifths  sheer  fudge." 

Fable  for  Critics. 


William  Gilmore  Simms. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         245 

Charleston  was  a  city  in  which  aristocratic  tendencies  were 
strong,  and  as  Simms  did  not  belong  to  the  "  first  families  " 
lack  of  social  recognition  probably  made  more  difficult  his 
success  in  literature.  He  was  an  ardent  Southerner,  and  an 
early  advocate  of  secession.1  At  the  same  time  he  was  on 
terms  of  warm  friendship  \vith  several  Northern  writers, 
among  them  some  of  those  whose  views  wrere  most  strongly 
opposed  to  his  own.  Like  most  Southern  writers  of  impor 
tance  he  published  much  in  the  North.  During  the  war  his 
house  wras  burned,  and  as  hostilities  interrupted  relations 
with  his  publishers  and  interfered  with  the  sale  of  his  works 
his  last  years  wrere  not  wholly  fortunate  or  happy. 

Throughout  his  life  Simms  WTote  continuously  and  hastily 
-  poems,  dramas,  essays,  short  tales,  and  many  novels. 
His  poems  and  dramas  are  relatively  unimportant,  though 
he  himself  cared  much  for  his  reputation  as  a  poet.  He  was 
best  as  an  author  of  prose  fiction,  in  which  field  he  did  for 
the  South,  roughly  speaking,  what  Cooper  did  for  the  North. 
Most  of  his  frontier  tales  are  melodramatic  and  bloody.  His 
historical  and  semihistorical  romances  of  colonial  and 
Revolutionary  times  are  better.  The  most  popular  is  the 
Yemassee;  others  of  value  are  the  Partisan  and  Mellichampe. 
Simms  was  by  no  means  a  mere  imitator  of  Cooper,  but  had 
much  original  genius  as  a  story-teller.  Unfortunately  he 
wrote  hastily  and  carelessly,  and  even  his  best  romances, 
though  they  are  well  worth  the  reader's  while,  are  full  of 
artistic  crudities. 

Timrod  and  Hayne.  —  During  the  fifties  there  gathered 
about  Simms  in  Charleston  a  group  of  younger  literary  men, 
chief  of  whom  were  the  poets  Timrod  and  Hayne.  HENRY 

1  Though  a  civilian  his  interest  in  the  beginning  of  military  op 
erations  was  so  great  that  when  Fort  Sumter  was  attacked  he  sug 
gested  plans  for  fortifications,  which  were  adopted. 


246     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


TIMROD,  the  son  of  a  Charleston  bookbinder,  was  troubled 
throughout  life  by  poverty  and  ill  health,  both  of  which  were 
aggravated  by  his  experiences  during  the  war.  A  volume 
of  his  verse  was  published  in  Boston  in  1860,  and  after  his 
death  in  1867  his  works  were  edited  by  his  friend  Hayne. 

He  was  a  fiery  and 
emotional  poet,  and  his 
best  work  was  lyric. 
Among  the  most  striking 
passages  of  his  poems  are 
those  which  express  his 
love  for  the  South,  and 
especially  his  hatred  for 
her  enemies.  PAUL 
HAMILTON  HAYNE  was 
perhaps  less  gifted  as  a 
poet,  but  he  was  a  sweeter 
and  more  lovable  man. 
The  descendant  of  an 
old  Southern  family,  he 
studied  law,  but  devoted 
much  of  his  energy  to 
literature.  Like  Timrod, 

Henry  Timrod. 

he  sunered  severely  rrom 

the  war,  and  at  its  close  he  retired  to  a  small  tract  of  land 
near  Augusta,  Georgia.  He  published  several  volumes  of 
musical  verse  and  some  miscellaneous  work.  Like  Timrod, 
he  wrote  lyrics  in  support  of  the  Southern  cause,  but  he 
was  less  vindictive  in  temperament,  and  he  accepted  the 
results  of  the  war  more  calmly. 

Richmond  Writers.  —  In  the  literary  circles  of  Richmond 
the  brothers  Cooke  were  of  importance.  The  elder,  PHILIP 
PENDLETON  COOKE,  was  a  gentleman  and  sportsman  who 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT        247 

only  dabbled  in  literature.  His  one  volume,  Froissart 
Ballads,  and  Other  Poems,  was  published  in  1847.  His  best- 
known  piece  is  a  sentimental  lyric,  "  Florence  Vane."  His 
younger  brother,  JOHN*  ESTEN  COOKE,  wrote  romances, 
particularly  romances  of  Virginia  life  in  the  colonial  days. 
His  best  works  are  Leather  Stocking  and  Silk,  The  Virginia 
Comedian*,  and  The  Youth  of  Jefferson,  the  two  last  having 
some  historical  elements.  His  stories  are  all  of  the  old- 
fashioned  sort  in  which  the  heroes  are  very  heroic  and  the 
ladies  very  beautiful,  and  the  love  affairs  develop  through 
many  complications.  The  REVEREND  ABRAM  J.  RYAN,  com 
monly  known  as  Father  Ryan,  was  also  a  native  of  Virginia, 
though  during  his  service  in  the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood 
he  lived  in  various  parts  of  the  South.  He  wrote  melodious 
and  genuine  religious  poems,  and  a  number  of  finely  im 
passioned  lyrics  expressing  his  devotion  to  the  Confederacy. 
"  The  Sword  of  Lee  "  and  "  The  Conquered  Banner  ''  are 
the  most  popular. 

Sidney  Lanier.  —  The  most  notable  Southern  writer  whose 
career  fell  between  the  close  of  the  war  and  1883  was  SIDNEY 
LAXIER.  Born  in  Georgia  in  1842,  and  graduated  from 
Oglethorpe  College,  a  small  institution  in  his  native  state, 
he  enlisted  in  the  Confederate  army,  where  he  served  in 
various  capacities.  After  the  war  he  engaged  in  several 
occupations,  and  finally  became  an  assistant  in  his  father's 
law  office.  In  1873  he  went  to  Baltimore  to  devote  himself 
to  music  and  literature.1  The  resolution  and  the  devotion 
to  art  involved  in  this  step  can  be  realized  only  when  it  is 

1  Baltimore  had  always  been  a  center  of  culture,  and  at  this  time 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  city  had  received  a  great  impetus  from 
the  founding  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  an  institution  which  had 
just  attracted  many  of  the  foremost  scholars  of  the  country  to  its 
faculty,  and  which  numbered  among  its  students  many  younger 
men  who  have  since  become  distinguished. 


248    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


known  that  he  was  already  afflicted  with  consumption, 
that  he  had  a  family,  and  that  he  was  without  means  except 
what  he  earned.  He  played  in  an  orchestra,  did  some  pri 
vate  teaching,  and  later  some  writing  that  brought  small 
returns.  In  1879,  two  years  before  his  death,  he  was  ap 
pointed  lecturer  in  English  literature  in  Johns  Hopkins 
University.  All  the  time  that  he  could  spare  from  labors 

necessary  to  his  support 
he  spent  in  study  and 
writing.  Before  he  re 
moved  to  Baltimore  he 
had  published  only  an 
unimportant  novel,  Tiger 
Lilies.  His  first  work 
to  attract  much  atten- 
t  i  o  n  was  a  poem, 
"Corn,"  which  appeared 
in  a  Philadelphia  maga 
zine  in  1875.  He  edited 
for  boys  several  of  the 
old  romances  and  did 
some  other  similar  work, 
and  in  1880  he  published 
a  treatise  on  the  Science 
of  English  Verse.  Since 
his  death  some  lectures  delivered  at  Johns  Hopkins  and 
other  miscellaneous  writings  have  been  published.  With 
the  exception  of  the  Science  of  English  Verse  these  prose 
writings  are  relatively  unimportant.  The  novel  was 
rhetorical  and  strained,  and  the  books  for  boys,  though  well 
done,  are  really  hack  work. 

It  was  for  his  work  as  a  poet  that  Lanier  cared  most,  and 
it  is  as  a  poet  that  he  deserves  to  be  remembered.     It  was 


Sidney  Lanier. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         249 

his  theory,  as  set  forth  in  the  Science  of  English  Verse,  that 
the  relation  between  music  and  poetry  is  closer  than  has 
usually  been  believed.  In  his  own  poems  he  worked  for 
subtle  effects  of  sound  and  rhythm,  and  sometimes  seems 
almost  to  have  cared  more  for  the  form  than  for  the  idea. 
He  was  careful  of  "  tone  color,"  -  the  choice  of  vowrel 
sounds  to  harmonize  with  the  emotion  of  the  poem  —  and 
he  made  free  use  of  alliteration,  the  repetend,  and  similar 
devices.  He  was  fond  of  long  and  elaborate  figures  of  speech. 
Among  his  most  striking  and  most  musical  poems  of  con 
siderable  length  are  "  The  Symphony,"  in  which  he  tries 
to  suggest  the  effect  of  different  musical  instruments,  and 
"  The  Marshes  of  Glynn,"  which  shows  his  feeling  for  nature. 
He  also  wrote  a  number  of  short,  finished,  almost  epigram 
matic  poems,  of  which  the  "  Ballad  of  Trees  and  the  Master  " 
is  typical.  All  his  poems,  long  and  short,  show  the  peculiar, 
elaborated  musical  quality  for  which  he  worked.  His  posi 
tion  as  the  most  promising  poet  of  the  South,  and  his  con 
nection  with  a  new  and  conspicuous  institution  of  learning 
united  with  the  charm  of  his  personality  and  the  pathos  of 
his  brave  life  to  win  him  friends,  arid  to  create  interest  in 
his  writings.  It  is  too  soon  to  be  certain  what  the  final  ver 
dict  on  his  work  will  be.  Many  critics  have  ranked  him 
among  the  greater  American  poets,  while  others  feel  that, 
whatever  he  might  have  done  if  he  had  lived  longer,  his 
actual  accomplishment  hardly  lifts  him  out  of  a  place  with 
the  better  minor  writers. 

TIIK    WEST 

The  Middle  West  —  General  Conditions.  —  It  will  be 
remembered  that  in  the  earlier  period,  while  the  AJleghanies 
still  formed  a  serious  barrier  to  travel,  the  Ohio  Valley  de- 


250    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

veloped  publishing  centers  and  a  literature  of  its  own. 
With  the  construction  of  canals  and  railroads  it  became 
easier  for  Western  writers  to  publish  in  the  seaboard  cities, 
and  for  Western  readers  to  secure  Eastern  books  and  periodi 
cals;  and  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  literature  in  Ohio 
and  Kentucky  largely  disappeared.  A  few  writers,  most  of 
them  connected  with  newspapers,  continued  the  traditions 
established  by  the  earlier  pioneers,  but  are  hardly  important 
enough  to  deserve  special  mention.1  The  \Vestern  spirit 
and  the  Western  characteristics  were  not  lost  to  American 
letters  —  on  the  contrary,  they  were  more  influential  than 
ever  before;  but  they  showed  themselves,  not  in  isolated 
publications  in  Western  towns,  but  in  the  great  mass  of 
literature  which  was  issued  from  the  cities  of  the  East. 

Some  Western  Writers.  —  STEPHEN  C.  FOSTER,  a  resi 
dent  of  Pittsburg  and  Cincinnati,  was  the  author  and  com 
poser  of  a  large  number  of  songs  which,  while  not  great  as 
poetry  or  as  music,  have  qualities  that  touch  the  heart,  and 
are  deservedly  popular.  Among  them  are  "  Old  Black  Joe," 
"  Old  Kentucky  Home,"  "  Xellie  was  a  Lady,"  and,  the 
favorite  of  all,  "  Old  Folks  at  Home  "  ("  Way  down  upon 
the  Swanee  Ribber  "). 

To  Kentucky  and  Illinois  belongs  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 
who  as  writer,  and  especially  as  speaker,  was  one  of  the 
greatest  American  masters  of  simple,  logical,  convincing 
prose,  and  who  knew  how  to  give  such  prose  the  dignity  and 
emotional  force  which  commands  the  feelings  as  well  as  the 
intellects  of  men.  He  has  as  much  simplicity  and  direct- 

1  Among  the  more  important  of  these  Ohio  Valley  writers  were 
George  D.  Prentice,  a  Connecticut  man,  who  long  edited  the  Louis 
ville  Journal  and  who  wrote  poems  and  clever  prose  paragraphs ; 
William  D.  Gallagher,  who  held  various  editorial  positions  in  Cin 
cinnati  and  Louisville,  and  also  wrote  poetry ;  and  Henry  M. 
Brackenridge,  son  of  H.  H.  Brackenridge,  who  wrote  in  prose. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         251 

ness  as  Franklin,  more  of  rhythm  and  finish,  more  sense  of 
form  and  proportion.     Careful  analysis  shows  the  "  Gettys- 


By  Gutzon  lionjlnm 


Statue  of  Abruhiim  Lincoln  in  Newark,  N.  J. 

burg  Address  "  to  be  almost  perfect  structurally,  yet  it  was 
a  wholly  spontaneous  utterance.  Lincoln  excelled  Franklin, 
too,  in  diversity  of  humor,  and  in  the  ability  to  appeal  to 


252    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


the  higher  natures  of  men  as  well  as  to  their  prudence. 
Though  much  has  been  said  of  his  indebtedness  to  the  Bible 
and  other  books  which  he  read  in  youth,  his  style,  like  that  of 
other  self-trained  men,  is  an  expression  of  his  personality.  His 
personality,  in  turn,  is  representative  of  what  was  best  in 
the  free,  active,  humorous,  intelligent  pioneer.  His  manner 
was  in  many  respects  the  opposite  of  that  of  Webster,  Choate, 
Everett,  and  other  great  orators  of  the  more  cultured  regions, 
and  since  the  days  of  his  debate  with  Douglas,  the  Gettys 
burg  Address,  and  the  Second  Inaugural  Address  standards 

of  American  ora 
tory  have  been 
wholly  different 
from  what  they 
were  before. 

In  the  latter  part 
of  the  period  Indi 
ana  produced  a 
number  of  writers. 
These  were  not  in 
any  way  bound 
together  as  a 

"  school."  The  REVEREND  EDWARD  EGGLESTON  did  mis 
sionary  work  in  Indiana  and  Minnesota  which  furnished 
material  for  his  novels,  The  Hoosier  Schoolmaster,  The  Cir 
cuit  Rider,  and  others.  Eggleston  also  wrote  history,  and 
the  artistic  effect  of  his  stories  is  sometimes  marred  by  the 
historian's  attempt  to  make  incidents  and  descriptions  of 
nature  and  of  character  strictly  accurate.  At  one  time  his 
works  were  very  popular,  and  they  are  still  valuable  for  their 
portrayal  of  conditions  of  life  that  have  passed  away.  GEN 
ERAL  LEW  WALLACE,  an  Indianapolis  lawyer  and  politician, 
is  known  chiefly  as  the  author  of  Ben-Hur,  a  Tale  of  the 


Lincoln's  birthplace. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


253 


Christ,  a  novel  which  has  conspicuous  defects,  but  which  is 
vivid  in  its  descriptions  and  sometimes  dramatic  in  action. 
His  earlier  novel,  The  Fair  God,  is  a  story  of  the  conquest 
of  Mexico.  Several  later  works,  written  after  Ben-Hur 
had  won  him  popular  recognition,  are  less  valuable.  JOHN 
HAY,  who  held  many  political  positions,  among  them  those 
of  private  secretary  to  President 
Lincoln,  ambassador  to  England, 
and  secretary  of  state  under 
President  McKinley,  was  also 
a  native  of  Indiana.  His  writ 
ings  were  various  and  were  in 
both  prose  and  verse.  The  Pike 
Couuiy  Ballads  are  in  crude 
\Yestern  dialect,  and  present 
some  of  the  Western  philosophy 
of  life.  The  most  popular  are 
"Jim  Bludso"  and  "Little 
Breeches."  Ccufilian  Day*  is 
based  on  the  author's  observa 
tions  in  Spain;  and  a  novel, 
The  Breadwinners,  published  anonymously,  is  a  study  of 
certain  conditions  of  American  life. 

Western  Humorists  —  Mark  Twain.  —  The  free  and 
active  life  of  the  West  has  always  been  favorable  to  the 
development  of  humor.  Humor  was  an  important  ingredient 
in  the  character  of  a  man  like  Lincoln,  and  humor  alone 
has  made  the  reputations  of  a  number  of  Western  writers. 
HENRY  W.  SHAW,  who  used  the  pen  name  "  Josh  Billings," 
lived  for  twenty  years  in  the  Middle  West,  and  was  essen 
tially  a  Western  character,  though  most  of  his  writing  was 
actually  done  in  the  East.  Josh  Billings's  "  sayings  "  art- 
brief  proverbs  and  epigrams,  many  of  which  would  seem 


John  Hay. 


254    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


rather  flat  if  they  did  not  attract  attention  by  their  bad 
spelling. 

Far  greater  than  the  newspaper  humorists  was  SAMUEL 
LANGHORNE  CLEMENS,  better  known  as  "  Mark  Twain."  1 
He  was  born  in  Missouri,  of  Virginia  ancestry,  in  1835,  and 
spent  most  of  his  boyhood  in  the  town  of  Hannibal  on  the 

Mississippi  River.  By 
the  time  that  he  was 
thirty-two  years  of  age 
he  had  served  as  a 
printer  in  various  places 
East  and  West,  as  steam 
boat  pilot  on  the  lower 
Mississippi,  and  as 
miner,  prospector,  specu 
lator,  newspaper  man, 
and  lecturer  in  Nevada 
and  California.  After 
these  varied  experiences 
in  the  most  distinctive 
regions  of  the  West,  he 
went  East,  where  some 
slight  reputation  as  a 
humorist  had  preceded  him.  In  1867  he  joined  an  ex 
cursion  to  Europe  and  the  Holy  Land,  and  wrote  back 
the  series  of  newspaper  letters  which  were  afterward  re 
vised  and  published  as  Innocents  Abroad.  After  his  return 
he  lived  in  the  East,  with  frequent  visits  to  Europe,  and 

1  "Mark  Twain"  is  a  call  used  on  Mississippi  steamboats  when 
the  river  is  being  sounded,  and  signifies  two  fathoms  (twelve  feet) 
of  water.  It  was  occasionally  used  as  a  pen  name  by  Captain  Sellers, 
a  river  pilot  of  an  older  generation  than  that  to  which  Clemens  be 
longed.  The  latter  did  not  adopt  it  for  himself  until  after  he  had 
left  the  river  and  gone  to  the  Pacific  slope. 


Mark  Twain. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         255 


Mark  Twain's  boyhood  homi 


256    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

devoted  himself  to  writing.  Unfortunate  investments  left 
him  at  one  time  heavily  in  debt,  but  by  literary  work 
and  lecturing  he  paid  all  obligations,  including  those  from 
which  he  had  been  legally  released,  and  amassed  a  consider 
able  property  besides.  Late  in  life  he  was  recognized  as  a 
conspicuous  figure,  and  received  many  honors,  including  the 
degree  of  D.C.L.  from  Oxford.1 

Mark  Twain  made  his  first  reputation  as  a  humorist. 
Innocents  Abroad  has  some  fine  descriptive  passages,  but 
its  great  popularity  was  due  to  its  humor  —  humor  better 
in  quality  than  that  of  the  average  newspaper  "  funny 
man,"  but  not  essentially  different  in  kind.  Some  critics 
have  named  as  the  chief  characteristics  of  native  American 
humor  exaggeration  and  irreverence.  Innocents  Abroad 
abounds  in  both  these  qualities,  but  especially  in  irreverence, 
using  this  word  in  a  broad  sense.2  Even  places  with  the 
most  sacred  associations,  and  the  greatest  works  of  art  were 
not  always  safe  from  his  fun,  but  usually  he  confined  his 
attacks  to  shams  and  relics  of  doubtful  authenticity,  or 
ridiculed  not  so  much  the  things  themselves  as  the  affected 
and  sentimental  enthusiasm  which  travelers  try  to  feel  in 
their  presence.  Mark  Twain  had  a  characteristic  Western 
hatred  of  sham  and  affectation  which,  if  not  always  con- 

1  Among  Mark  Twain's  more  important  works  were  The  Cele 
brated  Jumping  Frog  (1867),  Innocents  Abroad   (1869),  Roughing  It 
(1872),  Tom  Sawyer  (1876),  A  Tramp  Abroad  (1880),  The  Prince  and 
the  Pauper  (1882),  Life  on  the  Mississippi  (1883),  Huckleberry  Finn 
(1884),  A  Connecticut   Yankee  in  King  Arthur's  Court  (1889),   The 
American    Claimant    (1892),     The    £1,000,000    Bank-Note    (1893), 
Pudd'nhead   Wilson   (1894),   Personal   Recollections  of  Joan  of  Arc 
(1896),  Following  the  Equator  (1897).      The  Gilded  Age  is  astory  writ 
ten  in  collaboration  with  Charles  Dudley  Warner. 

2  Among  famous  passages  illustrating  this  quality  are  the  ad 
venture  with  the  Genoa  guide,  Vol.  I,  Chap.  XXVII,  and  the  medi 
tation  at  the  tomb  of  Adam,  Vol.  II.  Chap.  XXVI. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         257 

sistent,  was  sound  and  manly.  In  his  later  years  he  took 
himself  rather  seriously  as  a  philosopher,  and  grew  fond  of 
delivering  his  opinions  on  all  sorts  of  subjects  —  international 
copyright,  foreign  missions,  Christian  Science,  the  foreign 
policy  of  the  United  States,  and  many  more.  In  many 
cases  his  attitude  was  too  extreme  and  his  attacks  were  too 
vehemently  bitter  to  command  serious  respect  from  those 
who  did  not  already  agree  with  him.  On  the  whole,  his 
views  and  theories  had  most  weight  when  he  expressed  them 

incidentallv    in    his    romances    and    humorous   works.     A 

f 

Connecticut  Yankee  in  King  Arthur's  Court,  an  extravagant 
but  cleverly  planned  burlesque,  is  really  a  condemnation  of 
Chivalry,  which  was  one  of  his  chief  aversions.  In  Joan  of 
Arc,  historical  fiction  on  which  he  expended  much  careful 
labor,  he  also  expresses  many  of  his  social  theories. 

Those  who  care  most  for  Mark  Twain's  sheer  fun  consider 
that  he  was  at  his  best  in  Innocents  Abroad,  Roughing  It, 
and  similar  works,  many  of  them  written  early.  Those  wrho 
credit  him  with  great  importance  as  a  thinker  on  social 
questions  give  first  place  to  some  of  his  later  books,  par 
ticularly  the  Connecticut  Yankee  in  King  Arthur's  Court 
and  Joan  of  Arc.  The  majority  of  readers,  however,  feel 
that  his  most  valuable  work  was  done  in  the  middle  period, 
and  is  to  be  found  in  The  Adventures  of  Tom  Sawyer,  Life 
on  the  Mixxix.rippi,  and  Huckleberry  Finn.  There  is  much 
autobiographical  material  in  all  these  works.  Tom  Sawyer 
and  Huckleberry  Finn  tell  of  life  in  a  Southern  river  town 
as  the  author  knew  it  in  his  boyhood,  and  Life  on  the  Mis 
sissippi  is  based  on  his  experiences  as  a  pilot.  There  is 
much  humor  in  all  these;  and  there  is  much  serious,  accurate, 
and  appreciative  description  of  the  moods  and  aspects  of 
the  great  .river  that  Mark  Twain  knew  and  loved  so  well. 
There  is  much,  too,  that  show's  how  well  he  knew  life  and 


258     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

understood  human  nature,1  and  there  are  only  occasional 
glimpses  of  the  bitterness  and  unfairness  that  characterize 
some  of  his  later  work.  Pudd'nhead  Wilson,  a  later  romance 
with  the  scene  laid  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  has  some  of  the 
same  characteristics  as  Tom  Sawyer  and  Huckleberry  Finn, 
but  neither  the  story  nor  the  execution  are  so  satisfactory. 

Roughly  speaking,  American  humorists  may  be  divided 
into  two  groups.  One  group,  which  includes  Irving,  Holmes, 
and  not  quite  so  completely  Lowell,  shows  in  its  humor  the 
constant  influence  of  culture,  and  conforms  to  the  manner 
of  expression  that  prevails  in  the  literature  of  the  past,  and 
in  the  more  restrained  circles  of  society.  The  other,  which 
includes  Artemus  Ward  and  a  host  of  lesser  newspaper  hu 
morists,  depends  on  exaggeration  and  irreverence,  on  studied 
drollery,  and  on  the  qualities  that  characterize  the  banter 
and  give  and  take  of  men  unrestrained  by  social  conventions. 
Mark  Twain  stands  at  the  head  of  the  latter  group,  and  he 
has  done  more  than  any  other  man  to  show  that  this  form  of 
humor  may  be  wyorthy  of  respectful  attention  as  literature. 
He  was,  however,  more  than  a  humorist.  While  future  gen 
erations  may  decide  that  his  deliberate  philosophizing  is  of 
little  value,  his  keenness  of  observation  and  his  feeling  for 
some  aspects  of  nature,  and  his  understanding  of  men,  give 
his  better  works  a  value  that  could  never  be  derived  from 
mere  fun,  however  clever. 

The  Pacific  Slope  —  General  Conditions.  —  During  the 
time  between  the  discovery  of  gold  in  1848  and  the  comple 
tion  of  the  first  transcontinental  railroad  in  1869  the  Pacific 
slope  was  an  active  and  fast  developing  section  of  the  coun- 

1  Every  boy  and  every  one  who  knows  boys  recognizes  the  es 
sential  truth  to  boy  nature  that  underlies  the  exaggeration  in  such 
passages  as  that  in  which  Tom  Sawyer  permits  his  friends  to  white 
wash  the  fence. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


259 


try,  cut  off  from  easy  communication  with  older  centers  of 
culture.  Here,  as  earlier  in  the  Ohio  Valley  under  similar 
circumstances,  was  developed  a  distinctive  literature  of 
some  importance.  Several  magazines  were  founded  in  San 
Francisco,  one  of  them,  the  Overland,  attaining  a  consider 
able  reputation.  Mark  Twain  had  some  associations  with 
the  San  Francisco  group. 

Bret  Harte.  —  The  most  distinctive  of  the  California 
writers  was  (FRANCIS)  BRET  HARTE.1  Born  in  New  York 
State  in  1839,  he  went 
West  at  the  age  of  fif 
teen,  and  spent  his  most 
impressionable  years  in 
a  variety  of  occupa 
tions,  —  miner,  tax  col- 
lector,  express  mes 
senger,  drug  clerk,  and 
printer.  He  early  took 
to  writing  and  in  1868 
became  the  first  editor 
of  the  Overland  Monthly. 
It  was  in  this  magazine 
that  he  published  "  The 
Luck  of  Roaring  Camp," 
"  The  Outcasts  of  Poker 
Flat,"  and  other  tales 
which  quickly  won  him 
recognition,  particularly 

in  the  older  sections  of  the  country.  California,  which 
was  somewhat  sensitive  over  any  charges  of  social  crudity, 

1  Soon  after  he  began  to  be  known  as  a  writer  he  dropped  his 
first  name,  Francis,  and  thereafter  always  signed  himself  Bret 
Harte. 


260    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

did  not  fully  approve  of  his  portrayals  of  Western  life,  and 
in  1871  he  went  East,  never  to  return.  From  1878  to  1880 
he  held  a  United  States  consulate  in  Germany,  and  from 
that  time  until  his  death  in  1902  he  lived  in  Great  Britain. 

Harte  wrote  a  novel,  Gabriel  Conroy,  a  drama,  Two  Men  of 
Sandy  Bar,  and  two  series  of  Condensed  Novels,  burlesques 
or  parodies  on  popular  writers  of  fiction.  All  these  have 
some  excellences,  but  are  relatively  unimportant.  The  great 
bulk  of  his  work  was  in  short  prose  tales.  The  best  of  these 
were  written  while  he  was  in  California  and  immediately 
after  he  went  East.  They  deal  with  Western  scenes,  and 
portray  the  varied,  rude,  but  genuine  life  of  the  mining  camp 
and  the  frontier  settlement,  in  which  men  of  all  nationalities, 
all  degrees  of  culture,  and  all  grades  of  morals  mingled.  They 
are  not  written  with  a  didactic  purpose,  but  they  show  the 
author's  optimistic  belief  that  there  are  some  elements  of 
good  in  the  most  evil  characters.  They  have  a  touch  of 
sentimentality  and  of  melodrama,  imitated  from  the  less 
admirable  qualities  of  the  author's  favorite  novelist,  Dickens, 
but  the  best  of  them  are  after  all  essentially  true  and  genuine, 
and  rank  among  the  best  short  tales  written  in  America. 
After  he  went  abroad  Harte  continued  to  write  profusely  on 
this  rude  Western  life,  repeating  himself  somewhat,  and  never 
equaling  his  early  work. 

Bret  Harte  also  wrote  a  considerable  number  of  poems, 
some  like  "  Plain  Talk  from  Truthful  James,"  1  and  "  The 
Society  upon  the  Stanislaus  "  humorous,  others,  like  "  Her 
Letter,"  sentimental.  He  was  by  no  means  a  great  poet, 
but  he  was  a  smooth  and  pleasing  versifier,  and  often  showed 
real  feeling.  Harte  had  many  defects,  and  his  fame  must 
rest  on  only  a  small  part  of  what  he  wrote;  but  a  few  of  his 

1  Usually  known  as  "The  Heathen  Chinee." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT 


261 


best  stories,  and  perhaps  a  few  of  his  poems,  entitle  him  to 
a  definite  place  in  a  history  of  American  literature. 

Other  Writers  of  the  Far  West.  —  Among  California 
writers  of  slightly  later  date  was  EDWARD  ROWLAND  SILL,  a 
Yale  graduate  and  a  teacher  of  English  literature  in  the  Oak 
land  (Cal.)  high  school  and  the  University  of  California.  His 
work  was  in  prose  and  verse,  the  latter  being  the  more  im 
portant.  His  poems  are  mostly  short  and  personal,  and 
appeal  strongly 
to  those  whose 
mental  experi 
ences  have  been 
similar  to  those 
of  the  author. 
A  very  different 
type  of  man 
was  CINCIN- 

NATUS          HlNER 

MILLER,  who 
made  use  of  the 
pen  name  "  Joa- 
quin  Miller." 
He  was  born  in 

Indiana,  but  removed  to  the  Pacific  slope  when  he  was  a 
boy,  and  lived  there  a  great  part  of  his  life.  His  most  dis 
tinctive  writings  are  on  Western  themes,  as  may  be  inferred 
from  such  titles  as  Songs  of  the  Sierras,  Songs  of  the  Sunlands, 
Songs  of  the  Desert,  Songs  of  the  Mexican  Seas.  About  1870 
he  visited  England,  and  his  poems  were  praised  with  \\  hat 
has  since  seemed  considerable  extravagance  by  some  of  the 
better  English  critics.  He  is  at  his  best  in  poems  that  show 
his  feeling  for  the  grander  aspects  of  nature  as  seen  in  the 
West.  A  few  pieces,  like  his  lyric  "  Columbus,"  are  strong 


Joaquin  Miller  on  his  estate. 


262     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


and  well  sustained;    but  most  of  his  work   is    imitative, 
strained,    and    rhetorical,    and    there    was    an    element    of 

pose  about  the  man  and  his 
writings  that  interfered  with 
the  highest  success. 

In  some  of  her  later  writ 
ings  MRS.  HELEN  HUNT 
JACKSON,  who  signed  herself 
"H.  H.,"  had  some  connec 
tion  with  California,  but  she 
perhaps  belongs  more  prop 
erly  to  Colorado.  She  wrote 
verse  and  a  variety  of  mis 
cellaneous  prose,  but  is  best 
in  her  stories  and  novels. 
She  was  greatly  interested 
in  the  wrongs  of  the  In 
dians,1  and  Ramona,  a  novel 
Helen  Hunt  Jackson.  with  a  southern  California 

setting,  is  largely  devoted  to 
the  portrayal  of  their  treatment  by  the  whites. 


GENERAL  SUMMARY 

The  central  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  indeed 
the  period  of  greatest  achievement  in  American  literature, 
and  of  achievement  so  varied  and  complex  that  it  cannot  be 
summarized  in  brief.  A  good  number  of  writers  continued 
the  work  previously  begun  by  Irving  and  Cooper  of  winning 
for  American  literature  respectful  recognition  abroad.  If 

1  Mrs.  Jackson's  treatise  on  this  subject,  A  Century  of  Dishonor, 
attracted  great  attention  and  is  still  read  by  those  interested  in  the 
Indian  question,  but  is  of  little  literary  value. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         263 

we  are  in  danger  of  being  overpatriotic,  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  American  authors  did  not  quite  equal  their  English 
contemporaries  -  -  that  America  produced  no  poets  so 
good  as  Tennyson  and  Browning,  or  novelists  so  good  as 
Dickens  and  Thackeray,  or  essayists  so  good  as  New- 
man,  Carlyle,  Ruskin,  and  Arnold.  Still,  in  all  the 
branches  of  literature  that  these  men  represent  Americans 
made  world-wide  reputations,  several  of  which  promise  to 
be  lasting. 

In  the  period  under  consideration  the  New  England  spirit, 
which  had  been  developing  for  two  centuries,  reached  its 
culmination,  so  to  speak,  and  exerted  its  strongest  and  best 
influence  on  literature.  Six  of  the  greatest  writers  of  the 
period,  and  many  who  were  a  little  less  great,  were  born, 
trained,  and  passed  their  lives  in  the  region  where  their 
devout  ancestors  had  settled  in  the  early  seventeenth  cen 
tury.  These  men  had  all  departed  far  from  the  Puritan 
creed,  but  all  of  them  showed  to  a  considerable  degree  the 
influence  of  Puritanism.  It  should  not  be  inferred  from  this 
fact  that  they  were  painfully  narrow,  or  that  the  provincial 
ism  which  some  of  them  showed  was  greatly  to  their  dis 
advantage.  Partly  because  they  responded  to  influences 
from  other  sections  of  the  country,  partly  because  New 
Englanders  had  diffused  themselves  so  widely  throughout 
the  Middle  and  Western  states,  these  writers  were  to  a  great 
extent  representative  of  the  entire  North,  and  to  some  extent 
of  the  entire  country.  In  all  sections  of  the  United  States 
were  persons  who  liked  their  literature  to  be  moral,  didactic, 
and  mildly  sentimental;  and  an  excess  of  moralizing,  didac 
ticism,  and  sentimentality  is  the  worst  of  the  literary  sins 
which  can  be  charged  against  the  New  Englanders.  On  the 
other  hand,  many  of  their  excellences  —  their  purity  of 
thought,  their  earnestness,  their  devotion  to  the  democratic 


264     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

idea,  and  their  interest  in  the  common  man  —  are  qualities 
which  most  Americans  regard  as  national. 

While  there  was  no  other  very  distinctive  school  of  Ameri 
can  writers,  men  in  different  sections  of  the  country,  and 
particularly  Poe  and  Whitman,  opposed  somewhat  the  tend 
encies  of  the  New  Englanders.  Poe  objected  particularly 
to  their  didacticism,  and  emphasized  the  idea  that  literature, 
and  especially  poetry,  was  an  art  whose  sufficient  end  was 
spiritual  pleasure.  Whitman  objected  to  the  conventionality 
of  form  and  subject,  and  favored  greater  freedom  of  all  sorts 
in  literature.  Poe  and  Whitman  differed  as  widely  in  their 
conceptions  of  poetry  as  two  men  could,  yet  the  criticisms 
of  both  have  been  productive  of  good  results.  The  more 
important  of  the  other  New  York  writers,  several  of  whom, 
it  may  be  remembered,  were  of  New  England  birth,  agreed 
with  Poe  in  regarding  literature  as  an  art,  though  they  did  not 
agree  with  his  special  theories.  Southerners,  on  the  whole, 
both  the  somewhat  amateurish  poets  before  the  war,  and 
later  Lanier,  took  a  similar  view.  The  influence  of  the  West, 
particularly  of  the  Far  West,  was  for  greater  freedom  in  choice 
of  subjects  and  expression,  though  Western  writers  were  not 
actuated  by  any  such  theories  as  those  of  Whitman. 

The  New  Englanders  of  the  mid-century  were  the  last 
great  sectional  group  of  American  writers.  New  England 
and  the  old  South  were  long  the  two  parts  of  the  country 
in  which  the  original  colonizing  stock  remained  with  the 
least  admixture  of  foreign  elements,  but  after  the  Civil  War 
conditions  changed  in  both.  New  England,  in  particular, 
attracted  many  immigrants  from  abroad,  and  also  drew  to 
her  centers  of  culture  men  from  other  parts  of  America. 
Boston  and  Harvard  College  ceased  to  belong  exclusively  to 
the  descendants  of  the  Puritans.  Even  the  Atlantic  Monthly 
passed  in  1872  into  the  editorial  charge  of  a  native  of  the 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         265 

Middle  West,1  and  for  a  time,  in  the  succeeding  period,  into 
that  of  a  Southerner.  As  facilities  for  communication  in 
creased  writers  in  all  parts  of  the  country  found  themselves 
in  closer  connection  with  the  great  centers  of  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  and  American  literature  became  more  homo 
geneous,  more  truly  national,  than  ever  before.  Within 
less  than  twenty  years  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  sec 
tionalism,  as  it  had  existed  in  American  writings  for  two 
centuries  and  a  half,  had  almost  disappeared. 

READINGS  AND  TOPICS 

General  Suggestions.  —  As  in  the  study  of  earlier  periods  the 
student  should  keep  in  mind  the  course  of  American  history  and  of 
English  literature.  He  should  also  take  pains  to  note  literary 
relationships.  Discussions  of  the  period  may  be  found  in  Cairns, 
A  History  of  American  Literature,  Chapter  IV,  Trent,  A  History 
of  American  Literature,  pp.  285-579  ;  and  Wendell,  A  Literary  His 
tory  of  America,  pp.  204—513.  Among  other  reference  works  that 
may  be  useful  are  Whitcomb,  Chronological  Outlines  of  American 
Literature,  Brownell,  American  Prose  Masters,  Stedman,  Poets  of 
America,  Erskine,  Leading  American  Novelists,  Payne,  Leading 
American  Essayists,  Howe,  American  Bookmen,  Page,  Chief  Ameri 
can  Poets. 

Selections  from  most  of  the  lesser  writers  mentioned  may  be 
found  in  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature, 
and  from  the  poets  in  Stedman's  American  Anthology.  Many  of 
the  poets  are  also  represented  in  Bronson's  American  Poems,  Louns- 
bury's  Yale  Book  of  American  Verse,  and  other  anthologies. 

NEW  ENGLAND 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  For  gossip  and  miscellaneous  infor 
mation  regarding  literary  NY\\  Kngland  see  Higginson,  Cheerful 
Yesterdays,  Old  Cambridge,  Howells,  My  Litcniri/  /•'/•/> m/x  ami  .\c- 
'///aintances,  Stearnes,  Cambridge  Sketches,  ,S7,v/r//rx  from  Concord 

1  William    Dean    Howells.     Howells   had    hn-n    assistant   editor 
since  1866. 


266     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

and  Appledore.  For  the  history  of  Brook  Farm  see  Swift,  Brook 
Farm,  Annie  E.  Russell,  Home  Life  of  the  Brook  Farm  Association, 
and  for  a  vivid  though  of  course  not  an  accurate  portrayal  Haw 
thorne's  Blithedale  Romance. 

The  authorized  life  of  EMERSON  is  Cabot's.  Good  brief  biog 
raphies  are  those  of  Holmes,  Garnett,  Sanborn.  Almost  any  good 
library  will  contain  much  about  Emerson,  but  it  is  better  to  con 
fine  reading  mostly  to  his  own  works.  "Self-Reliance"  and 
"Friendship"  are  good  essays  for  beginners  in  Emerson.  A  rep 
resentative  list  of  the  poems  would  include:  "Each  and  All," 
"The  Problem,"  "The  Sphinx,"  "Hamatreya,"  "The  Rhodora," 
"The  Humble  Bee,"  "The  Snow-Storm,"  "Woodnotes,"  "Fable," 
"Days,"  "Dirge,"  "The  Romany  Girl,"  "The  Informing  Spirit," 
"The  Concord  Hymn."  The  interested  student  should  also  ex 
plore  the  "  Quatrains  "  and  "  Fragments." 

The  biographies  of  THOREAU  by  Sanborn  and  by  Salt  are  the 
best,  though  neither  is  wholly  satisfactory.  Those  who  have  time 
would  do  well  to  read  all  of  Walden;  when  this  is  impossible,  the 
chapters  on  "Economy,"  "Sounds,"  "Visitors,"  may  be  suggested. 
Those  who  wish  to  continue  their  reading  in  Thoreau  farther  may 
turn  next  to  The  Maine  Woods,  Cape  Cod.  MARGARET  FULLER 
and  ALCOTT  hardly  repay  much  study  except  to  the  special  student. 
The  Memoir  of  the  former  by  Emerson,  Clarke,  and  Channing  con 
tains  much  valuable  material. 

The  abolitionist  writers  other  than  Whittier,  Lowell,  and  Mrs. 
Stowe  hardly  call  for  much  attention,  but  those  who  wish  may  con 
sult  W.  P.  and  F.  J.  Garrison,  Life  of  Garrison,  Austin's  Life  and 
Times  of  Wendell  Phillips,  and  read  selections  from  the  works  of 
these  men.  Among  the  more  famous  of  Phillips' s  speeches  are  "The 
Murder  of  Lovejoy,"  "The  Burial  of  John  Brown,"  "Toussaint 
1'Ouverture." 

The  standard  life  of  WHITTIER  is  Pickard's;  the  best  brief  life 
is  Carpenter's.  The  following  list  contains  representatives  of  the 
different  classes  of  Whittier's  poems:  "Proem,"  "The  Angels  of 
Buena  Vista,"  "Maud  Muller,"  "Skipper  Ireson's  Ride,"  "Telling 
the  Bees,"  "Mabel  Martin,"  "My  Playmate,"  "The  Sisters," 
"The  River  Path,"  "The  Vanishers,"  "A  Sea  Dream,"  "Sunset 
on  the  Bearcamp,"  "Ichabod,"  "The  Lost  Occasion,"  "Cen 
tennial  Hymn,"  "The  Tent  on  the  Beach"  ("Introduction,"  "The 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         267 

Wreck  of  the  Rivermouth"),  "The  Hunters  of  Men,"  "Massa 
chusetts  to  Virginia,"  "Barbara  Frietchie,"  "Laus  Deo,"  "The 
Poor  Voter  on  Election  Day,"  "Memories,"  "The  Barefoot  Boy," 
"Snow-Bound,"  "In  School  Days,"  "The  Eternal  Goodness," 
"Our  Master."  Those  who  wish  representative  passages  of  the 
prose  may  read  "Yankee  Gypsies,"  "The  Fish  I  didn't  Catch," 
and  selections  from  Margaret  Smith's  Journal. 

The  standard  life  of  LOWELL  is  Scudder's;  Underwood's  and 
Hale's  biographies  are  satisfactory;  Hale's  James  Russell  Lowell 
and  his  Friends  is  a  pleasing,  gossipy  book.  The  best  way  to  get 
an  idea  of  Lowell  the  man  is  to  dip  here  and  there  in  his  Letters. 
The  following  list  contains  representative  poems  :  "  Summer  Storm," 
"To  a  Pine-Tree,"  "The  Present  Crisis,"  "  She  Came  and  Went," 
"The  Changeling,"  "Beaver  Brook,"  "To  W.  L.  Garrison,"  "The 
Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,"  "  The  Fable  for  Critics"  (criticisms  of  a  few 
American  authors),  "For  an  Autograph,"  "Auf  Wiedersehen," 
"Palinode,"  "After  the  Burial,"  "Harvard  Commemoration  Ode," 
"Agassiz,"  "Phcebe,"  "Monna  Lisa,"  "In  the  Twilight."  From 
the  Biglow  Papers  the  student  should  read  some  at  least  of  the  pre 
liminary  and  introductory  material  to  Series  I,  and  selections,  e.g., 
Nos.  I,  II,  and  III,  Series  I,  and  Nos.  II,.  VI,  and  X,  Series  II. 
Three  of  Lowell's  most  delightful  informal  essays  are  "My  Garden 
Acquaintance,"  "A  Good  Word  for  Winter,"  and  "On  a  Certain 
Condescension  in  Foreigners."  The  lecture  on  "Democracy"  is 
representative  of  his  later  political  utterances,  and  any  selection 
from  the  volume  of  Political  Essays  may  be  chosen  as  showing  his 
earlier  manner.  In  subject  the  paper  on  "Abraham  Lincoln"  is 
as  attractive  as  any.  The  literary  essays  are  for  readers  already 
familiar  with  the  author  discussed,  rather  than  for  novices,  and  the 
student  who  reads  from  them  should  make  his  own  selection  with 
this  fact  in  mind. 

None  of  the  biographies  of  MRS.  STOWE  is  wholly  satisfactory. 
As  in  case  of  other  novelists,  selections  are  not  very  valuable. 
Those  who  are  not  already  familiar  with  I 'tide  Tom's  Cabin  should 
become  so  if  possible.  The  other  works  of  Mrs.  Stowe  that  best 
repay  study  are  Old  Town  Folks  and  The  Minister's  Wooing. 

The  standard  life  of  LONGFELLOW  is  that  by  the  poet's  brother, 
Samuel  Longfellow.  Shorter  lives  by  Carpenter,  Higginson, 
Robertson,  Underwood,  and  Kennedy  are  satisfactory.  The 


268     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

following  poems,  most  of  which  will  doubtless  be  familiar  to  the 
student,  are  representative:  "Hymn  to  the  Night,"  "The  Psalm 
of  Life,"  "The  Reaper  and  the  Flowers,"  "The  Beleaguered  City," 
"The  Skeleton  in  Armor,"  "The  Wreck  of  the  Hesperus,"  "The 
Village  Blacksmith,"  "The  Rainy  Day,"  "Excelsior,"  "The  Slave's 
Dream,"  "Rain  in  Summer,"  "The  Bridge,"  "The  Day  is  Done," 
"The  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs,"  "The  Arrow  and  the  Song,"  "  Evan- 
geline,"  "The  Building  of  the  Ship,"  "Seaweed,"  "Resignation," 
"The  Builders,"  "Hiawatha"  (selections,  e.g.,  Introduction,  Sec 
tions  I,  VII,  X),  "The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish,"  "My  Lost 
Youth,"  "Children,"  "The  Children's  Hour,"  "Tales  of  a  Way 
side  Inn"  (Introduction,  "Paul  Revere's  Ride,"  "King  Robert  of 
Sicily"),  "Divina  Commedia,"  "Jugurtha."  Those  who  wish  to 
sample  the  prose  may  dip  into  Outre-Mer  and  Hyperion,  noticing 
the  differences  between  the  two. 

The  best  biography  of  HAWTHORNE  is  that  by  Woodberry; 
Carpenter's  and  Henry  James's  lives  are  also  good;  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne  and  his  Wife,  by  Julian  Hawthorne,  contains  much 
material.  The  following  lists  of  short  selections  are  representative : 
From  the  Twice  Told  Tales,  "The  Gray  Champion,"  "Sundays  at 
Home,"  "The  Maypole  of  Merry  Mount,"  "Mr.  Higginbotham's 
Catastrophe,"  "The  Great  Carbuncle,"  "David  Swan,"  "Sights 
from  a  Steeple,"  "Dr.  Heidegger's  Experiment,"  " Lady  Eleariore's 
Mantle  "  ;  from  the  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse,  "The  Old  Manse," 
"The  Birthmark,"  "Young  Goodman  Brown,"  " Rappaccini's 
Daughter,"  "The  Celestial  Railroad,"  "Feathertop,"  "Drowne's 
Wooden  Image,"  "The  Old  Apple  Dealer" ;  from  The  Snow  Image 
and  other  Twice  Told  Tales,  "The  Snow  Image,"  "The  Great  Stone 
Face,"  "Ethan  Brand";  from  the  stories  for  children,  "The  Gor 
gon's  Head,"  "The  Golden  Fleece,"  selections  from  Grandfather's 
Chair.  Those  who  have  time  should  read  one  of  the  romances, 
preferably  the  Scarlet  Letter.  Excursions  into  the  Note-Books, 
especially  the  American  Note-Books,  are  profitable  for  those  who 
would  know  more  of  the  author  and  his  methods  of  work. 

The  standard  life  of  HOLMES  is  that  by  Morse.  The  following 
list  of  Holmes's  poems  is  representative:  "Old  Ironsides,"  "The 
Last  Leaf,"  "The  Last  Reader,"  "Lexington,"  "On  Lending  a 
Punch  Bowl,"  "The  Parting  Word,"  "A  Rhymed  Lesson,"  "The 
Voiceless,"  "The  Living  Temple,"  "Brother  Jonathan's  Lament 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         269 

for  Sister  Caroline,"  "Bill  and  Joe,"  "The  Boys,"  "The  Chambered 
Nautilus,"  "The  Deacon's  Masterpiece,"  "Under  the  Violets," 
"Hymn  of  Trust,"  "Aunt  Tabitha,"  "Dorothy  Q.,"  "Grand 
mother's  Story  of  Bunker  Hill,"  "The  Broomstick  Train."  The 
best  of  the  volumes  of  informal  essays  is  the  Autocrat.  Those 
who  have  not  time  for  all  may  make  their  own  selections,  almost 
at  random.  From  the  novels  Elsie  Venner  should  be  the  first 
choice,  and  The  Guardian  Angel  the  second. 

Readings  in  the  lesser  New  England  authors  should  be  deter 
mined  by  the  student's  taste  as  well  as  by  the  time  at  his  disposal. 
Brief  biographical  sketches,  such  as  may  be  found  in  Appleton's 
Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography  and  other  works  of  reference, 
will  in  most  cases  be  ample.  There  is  some  gossipy  information 
about  other  writers  in  Field's  Yesterdays  with  Authors.  From 
Parsons  every  student  should  read  "On  a  Bust  of  Dante"  and 
"Paradisi  Gloria."  Two  representative  poems  of  W.  W.  Story 
are  "Cleopatra"  and  "Praxiteles  and  Phryne."  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  most  students  are  already  familiar  with  some  of  Louisa  M. 
Alcott's  and  of  J.  T.  Trowbridge's  delightful  stories.  Donald  G. 
Mitchell's  Reveries  of  a  Bachelor  is  well  worth  reading,  and  so  are 
some  of  Charles  Dudley  Warner's  essays,  such  as  those  gathered  in 
the  volumes  As  we  were  saying,  My  Summer  in  a  Garden,  and  Being 
a  Boy.  Every  educated  American  should  know  something  of  the 
four  greater  New  England  historians,  Bancroft,  Prescott,  Motley, 
and  Parkman,  but  their  representative  works  are  too  long  to  read 
in  an  elementary  course  in  literature.  Selections,  such  as  may  be 
found  in  Stedman  &  Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature, 
may  be  profitable,  especially  from  Parkman;  and  all  who  care 
for  accounts  of  adventure  should  read  The  Oregon  Trail.  Those 
who  have  time  will  find  it  interesting  and  profitable  to  read  one 
or  more  of  Parkman's  historical  volumes  complete.  The  Con 
spiracy  of  Pontiac  is  typical.  Sumner's  address  "On  the  True 
Grandeur  of  Nations"  and  some  of  his  political  speeches,  and  some 
of  Choate's  orations  may  be  commended  to  those  especially  in 
terested  in  oratory.  Any  available  selections  from  "Artemus 
Ward"  will  give  an  idea  of  his  humor.  Any  student  who  has  not 
already  done  so  should  surely  read  Hale's  The  Man  without  a 
Country,  and  if  he  wishes  may  follow  this  by  .U//  Double  and  How 
he  Undid  Me,  or  by  some  of  1  laic's  essays.  Those  who  wish  an 


270    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

acquaintance  with  Higginson  may  at  the  same  time  gain  information 
about  other  writers  by  reading  such  works  as  Old  Cambridge,  James 
Russell  Lowell  and  his  Friends,  etc.  Dana's  Two  Years  Before  the 
Mast  is,  like  The  Oregon  Trail,  a  classic  account  of  adventure  which 
any  right-minded  boy  will  surely  enjoy,  and  Thompson's  The 
Green  Mountain  Boys,  while  in  the  old-fashioned  manner,  is  well 
worth  while.  It  should  hardly  be  necessary  to  add  to  the  list  of 
readings  "My  country,  'tis  of  thee,"  and  "The  Battle  Hymn  of 
the  Republic." 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  Those  who  have  access  to 
a  file  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  may  make  a  study  of  the  early  volumes, 
or  compare  them  with  recent  magazines.  (The  authors  of  articles 
in  these  volumes  are  given,  so  far  as  known,  in  The  Atlantic  Index, 
1857-1888.)  An  interesting  paper  may  be  prepared  on  Life  at 
Brook  Farm  (see  references  above).  The  literary  environs  of 
Boston,  or  more  limited  topics,  such  as  Cambridge,  Concord, 
Salem,  etc.,  may  be  made  the  subjects  of  interesting  reports,  es 
pecially  if  pictures  are  available  for  illustration.  (There  is  a  wealth 
of  material  for  such  papers ;  see,  for  example,  Homes  of  American 
Authors,  — -  reprinted  as  Little  Journeys  to  the  Homes  of  American 
Authors,  —  Stoddard,  Poets'  Homes,  Higginson,  Old  Cambridge, 
Winsor,  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  Swayne,  The  Story  of  Concord 
told  by  Concord  Writers,  etc.) 

Suggested  topics  on  Emerson :  What  message  I  get  from  Emer 
son's  essays ;  Why,  according  to  Emerson,  should  one  be  self- 
reliant?  Why  was  Emerson  a  good  lecturer?  A  collection  of 
quotable  sentences  from  Emerson's  prose ;  Emerson's  poems  on 
nature  (compared,  if  desired,  with  those  of  some  other  poet) ; 
Emerson's  use  of  homely  illustrations  in  prose  and  poetry ;  Emer 
son's  life  in  Concord.  (See  biographies  of  Emerson,  and  books  on 
Concord  listed  above.) 

Suggested  topics  on  Thoreau:  What  sort  of  man  was  Thoreau 
(his  character  as  seen  in  his  writings) ;  Camping  all  the  year  round 
(based  on  Walden) ;  Thoreau  as  a  minute  and  accurate  observer 
(cite  passages  from  his  works) ;  Thoreau's  humor ;  Thoreau's 
essays  on  nature  compared  with  those  of,  e.g.,  Burroughs. 

Suggested  topics  on  Margaret  Fuller,  Alcott  (profitable  only  to 
those  specially  interested) :  What  Margaret  Fuller's  contemporaries 
thought  of  her  (Consult  the  Memoir  by  Emerson,  Channing,  and 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT        271 

Clarke,  and,  by  use  of  the  indexes,  Emerson's  Journals,  Haw 
thorne's  Note  Books,  Lowell's  Letters,  etc.) ;  An  early  Women's 
Rights  tract  (Woman  in  the  Nineteenth  Century) ;  A  study  of 
some  of  the  "Orphic  Sayings";  The  Fruitlands  experiment  (See 
Sanborn  and  Harris's  Memoir  of  Alcott,  II,  pp.  372-391). 

Suggested  topics  on  the  abolitionists :  Students  especially  in 
terested  in  American  history  may  prepare  a  topic  on  Garrison  and 
the  Liberator,  or  on  Phillips  as  an  orator. 

Suggested  topics  on  Whittier :  Whittier's  home,  and  its  reflec 
tion  in  his  poems  (See  Pickard,  Whittier-Land,  and  numerous 
references  in  Page,  Chief  American  Poets) ;  Whittier's  treatment 
of  the  Quakers  (chiefly  in  the  verse,  but  see  also  references  in  Mar 
garet  Smith's  Journal,  etc.) ;  Whittier's  treatment  of  themes  from 
old  New  England  life;  Whittier's  personal  poems;  Whittier  as 
a  teller  of  stories  in  verse;  Whittier's  treatment  of  New  England 
country  life;  A  study  of  Whittier's  antislavery  poems;  A  com 
parison  between  "Snow-Bound"  and  "The  Cotter's  Saturday 
Night";  A  comparison  of  "Snow-Bound"  and  Bryant's  "The 
Snow-Storm,"  Emerson's  "The  Snow-Storm,"  Lowell's  "The  First 
Snow-Fall,"  etc. 

Suggested  topics  on  Lowell :  Lowell  and  Elmwood  (See  Higginson, 
Old  Cambridge,  and  many  references  in  Page) ;  Lowell's  character  as 
shown  in  his  letters ;  A  comparison  of  Lowell's  and  Whittier's  anti- 
slavery  poems ;  Lowell's  poems  on  nature  (compared  if  desired  with 
those  of  some  other  poet) ;  Lowell's  personal  poems ;  New  England 
elements  in  Lowell's  work ;  Lowell's  humor ;  Moralizing  in  Lowell's 
poems ;  A  study  of  the  "Vision  of  Sir  Launfal"  ;  The  "Vision  of  Sir 
Launfal"  compared  with  stories  of  the  Grail  in  Tennyson's  "Idyls 
of  the  King";  A  comparison  of  the  Biglow  Papers  with  later 
political  satire,  e.g.,  "Mr.  Dooley";  In  what  does  the  charm  of 
Lowell's  informal  essays  consist?  "My  Garden  Acquaintance" 
compared  with  passages  from  Thoreau. 

Suggested  topics  on  Mrs.  Stowe :  Why  is  Uncle  Tom 's  Cabin 
still  read?  Character  portrayal  in  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin;  Humor 
and  pathos  in  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin. 

Suggested  topics  on  Longfellow  :  Longfellow  and  Craigie  House 
(See  Stoddard,  Poets'  Homes,  Higginson,  Old  Cambridge,  Homes  of 
American  Authors,  and  references  in  Page,  Chief  American  Poets) ; 
Longfellow's  treatment  of  American  themes ;  Longfellow's  poems 


272    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

of  slavery  compared  with  Whittier's ;  Longfellow's  descriptions  of 
nature  compared  with  Whittier's  ;  with  Lowell's  —  (Choose  a  few 
from  each  author  and  make  the  comparisons  definite) ;  The  moraliz 
ing  element  in  Longfellow's  poems ;  Longfellow  as  a  poet  of  the 
children ;  Evidence  of  European  influence  in  Longfellow's  poems ; 
"Evangeline"  (the  story,  the  descriptions,  the  truth  to  history); 
A  study  of  some  of  Longfellow's  verse  forms ;  My  first  acquaintance 
with  Longfellow;  or,  What  Longfellow  meant  to  me  when  I  was 
in  the  grades;  Comparison  of  Outre-Mer  and  the  Sketch  Book; 
Differences  between  Outre-Mer  and  Hyperion. 

Suggested  topics  on  Hawthorne  :  Hawthorne's  homes  and  haunts 
(See  Hawthorne's  own  description  of  The  Old  Manse,  and  of  the 
Salem  custom  house  in  the  introduction  to  the  Scarlet  Letter;  Bridge, 
Personal  Recollections  of  Hawthorne;  Rose  Hawthorne  Lathrop, 
Memories  of  Hawthorne;  Homes  of  American  Authors,  etc.) ;  Haw 
thorne's  choice  of  old  New  England  subjects ;  Hawthorne's  han 
dling  of  the  supernatural  (compare  with  that  of  Irving) ;  Suggestive- 
ness  and  symbolism  in  the  tales  and  romances;  The  element  of 
mystery  in  Hawthorne's  tales  (Find  tales  in  which  there  is  a 
mysterious  element.  For  what  is  it  used  ?  Is  it  cleared  up  at  the 
end  ?) ;  The  moralizing  element  in  Hawthorne's  tales  (Find  stories 
which  teach  morals.  Is  the  moral  definitely  expressed  ?  Does  the 
moralizing  tend  to  spoil  the  tale  ?) ;  Do  Hawthorne's  characters  seem 
real?  (Is  the  character  lifelike?) ;  Hints  for  stories  in  the  Ameri 
can  Note-Books  (List  both  those  which  the  author  developed  into 
stories,  and  those  which  he  never  used) ;  A  study  of  Hawthorne's 
descriptions;  Do  children  to-day  enjoy  the  Tangle-Wood  Tales, 
etc.?  Why,  or  Why  not? 

Suggested  topics  on  Holmes :  Humor  and  pathos  in  Holmes's 
poems;  The  blending  of  humor  and  pathos  in  "The  Last  Leaf" 
and  "The  Boys";  What  evidence  in  Hohues's  writings  that  the 
author  was  a  physician?  A  study  of  the  "Poems  of  the  Class  of 
'29";  Holmes's  patriotic  poems;  The  conception  and  plan  of  the 
Autocrat  (Why  did  Holmes  choose  a  boarding-house  for  the 
scene  ?  Why  the  breakfast  table  rather  than  the  dinner  table  ? 
etc.) ;  A  study  of  ten  selected  pages  of  the  Autocrat,  listing  the  sub 
jects  touched  upon  and  searching  out  the  allusions,  etc. ;  A  study 
of  Elsie  Venner. 

Suggested  papers  and  topics  on  minor  authors  :  Papers,  apprecia- 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT         273 

tive  and  personally  reminiscent,  may  be  prepared  on  What  is 
enjoyable  in  the  stories  of  Miss  Alcott,  or  of  Trowbridge ;  or  one 
may  study  New  England  life  as  portrayed  in  Miss  Alcott's  stories. 
Other  suggested  topics  are :  A  study  of  Reveries  of  a  Bachelor  (com 
pared  if  desired  with  other  informal  essays,  e.g.,  Lamb's,  Holmes's) ; 
A  study  of  one  of  Charles  Dudley  Warner's  volumes ;  The  Oregon 
Trail  compared  with  fictitious  narratives  of  Western  adventure 
(e.g.,  Cooper's) ;  The  habits  and  characteristics  of  the  Indians 
as  shown  in  one  of  Parkman's  historical  works ;  What  is  funny 
in  the  writings  of  "Artemus  Ward"?  A  comparison  between 
Ward  and  Lowell  as  humorists,  Ward  and  Mark  Twain;  How 
does  the  author  make  "The  Man  without  a  Country"  seem  real? 
Some  interesting  gleanings  about  New  England  writers  from  Hig- 
ginson's  Old  Cambridge  ;  Two  Years  before  the  Mast  compared  with 
novels  of  sea  life  (e.g.,  Cooper's) ;  American  patriotic  songs  of  the 
central  period  (history,  sentiments  expressed,  tunes  to  which  they 
are  sung,  etc.;  include  "Hail  Columbia,"  "My  country,  'tis  of 
thee,"  "Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic,"  "Dixie,"  "Maryland,  My 
Maryland,"  "John  Brown's  Body,"  etc.). 

THE   MIDDLE  STATES 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  The  best  brief  biographies  of  WHIT 
MAN  are  those  by  Perry  and  by  Carpenter.  Symonds,  Walt  Whit 
man;  a  Study,  Burroughs's,  Whitman;  a  Study,  and  several  other 
discussions  of  Whitman's  significance  are  important,  but  are  hardly 
for  beginners.  A  few  poems  are  named  in  the  note  on  page  219, 
and  the  following  list  is  fairly  representative:  "One's-Self  I  Sing," 
"In  Cabin'd  Ships  at  Sea,"  "I  hear  America  Singing,"  "Crossing 
Brooklyn  Ferry,"  "Song  of  the  Broad- Axe,"  "Pioneers!  0  Pio 
neers!  "  "Out  of  the  Cradle  Endlessly  Rocking,"  "Tears,"  "To  the 
Man-of- War  Bird,"  "Beat!  Beat!  Drums,"  " Give  me  the  Splendid 
Silent  Sun,"  "When  Lilacs  Last  in  the  Door- Yard  Bloomed,"  "0 
Captain!  My  Captain!  "  "Darest  thou  now,  O  Soul,"  "Xight  on 
the  Prairies,"  "The  Voice  of  the  Rain."  Those  who  wish  to  make 
the  acquaintance  of  Whitman's  prose  had  best  begin  with  Specimen 
Days,  selecting  from  the  table  of  contents  items  of  interest,  par 
ticularly  those  that  have  to  do  with  the  author's  army  hospital 
experiences. 

William  Winter  is  best  seen  in  his  Gray  Days  and  Gold,  his  writings 


274     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY   SCHOOLS 

on  the  American  stage,  and  his  late  volume  of  reminiscences,  Old 
Friends.  Those  who  care  for  weirdly  imaginative  stories  will  en 
joy  O'Brien's  "What  Was  It?  a  Mystery,"  "The  Diamond  Lens," 
and  "The  Wondersmith." 

There  is  a  life  of  STEDMAN  by  Laura  Stedman  and  George  M. 
Gould,  and  one  of  ALDRICH  by  Greenslet,  but  the  student  will 
hardly  make  much  use  of  either.  The  following  lists  of  poems  are 
representative : 

From  Stedman:  "Kearny  at  Seven  Pines,"  "Treason's  last 
Device,"  "Pan  in  Wall  Street,"  "The  Doorstep,"  "Country  Sleigh 
ing,"  "Toujours  Amour,"  "Stanzas  for  Music,"  "Falstaffs  Song," 
"The  Hand  of  Lincoln." 

From  Stoddard:  "How  are  songs  begot  and  bred?"  "The 
Flight  of  Youth,"  "The  Sea  (Storm),"  "Birds,"  "November," 
"In  the  market-place  one  day,"  "Abraham  Lincoln,"  "A  Catch," 
"An  Old  Song  Reversed." 

From  Aldrich:  "Baby  Bell,"  "Nocturne,"  "An  Untimely 
Thought,"  "Heredity,"  "Unguarded  Gates,"  "Two  Moods," 
"Prescience,"  "Guilielmus  Rex,"  "I  vex  me  not  with  brooding  on 
the  years."  From  Aldrich's  prose  read  The  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy, 
and  as  representatives  of  his  short  stories  "Marjory  Daw,"  "  Quite 
So,"  "Mademoiselle  Olympe  Zabriski,"  "A  Sea  Turn,"  "Goliath." 

The  writings  of  N.  P.  Willis  are  interesting  as  showing  the  taste 
of  the  earlier  part  of  the  central  period.  From  his  poems,  "  Un 
seen  Spirits,"  "Parrhasius,"  and  "Hagar  in  the  Wilderness"  are 
typical,  and  his  prose  may  be  sampled  in  some  of  his  descriptions  of 
travel. 

George  William  Curtis  is  seen  to  best  advantage  in  the  essays 
from  the  Easy  Chair,  e.g.,  "Honor,"  "The  Mannerless  Sex,"  and 
any  others  the  topics  of  which  are  especially  interesting  to  the 
reader.  These  may  if  desired  be  followed  by  some  of  the  orations, 
or  by  some  of  the  earlier  descriptions  of  travel. 

The  most  interesting  of  Beecher's  addresses  are  probably  those 
delivered  in  England  during  the  war. 

Melville's  Typee,  Omoo,  and  Moby  Dick  may  be  recommended 
to  the  boy  who  loves  accounts  of  adventure. 

The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham  is  perhaps  the  best  of  Mr.  Howells's 
novels  to  begin  with,  and  this  may  be  followed  by  Their  Wedding 
Journey,  A  Hazard  of  New  Fortunes,  or  The  Lady  of  the  Aroostook. 


THE  PERIO  D  OF  ORE  A  TES  T  A  CHIE  VEMENT         275 

The  farces  may  be  represented  by  The  Elevator  or  The  Sleeping-Car. 
Some  of  the  author's  later  short  stories  are  collected  in  the  volume 
Between  the  Dark  and  the  Daylight.  Howells's  literary  and  mis 
cellaneous  essays  may  be  seen  in  the  volumes  Impressions  and 
Experiences,  and  Literature  and  Life,  where  the  student  may  sample 
those  whose  subjects  appeal  to  him. 

The  beginner  will  probably  wish  to  confine  himself  to  the  earlier 
work  of  Mr.  Henry  James.  Suggestions  for  study  in  the  short 
stories  might  include  Daisy  Miller,  An  International  Episode,  The 
Lesson  of  the  Master,  Sir  Edmund  Orme;  and  for  the  novels,  perhaps 
The  American,  Portrait  of  a  Lady. 

Representative  poems  by  Alice  Gary  are:  "Pictures  of  Mem 
ory,"  "Bidder's  Wife,"  "An  Order  for  a  Picture,"  "Sometimes"; 
by  Phcebe  Gary :  "  Nearer  Home,"  "  Suppose "  ;  by  Emma  Lazarus : 
"On  the  Proposal  to  erect  a  Monument  in  England  to  Lord  Byron," 
"  Autumn  Sadness,"  "  The  Banner  of  the  Jew." 

The  standard  life  of  BAYARD  TAYLOR  is  that  by  Marie  Hansen 
Taylor  and  H.  E.  Scudder.  Representative  poems  are  "  On  the 
Headland,"  "Autumnal  Dreams,"  "Song"  (Daughter  of  Egypt, 
veil  thine  eyes),  "Bedouin  Song,"  "Hassan  to  his  Mare,"  "The 
Song  of  the  Camp,"  "Proposal,"  "The  Quaker  Widow,"  "The 
Palm  and  the  Pine."  Taylor's  prose  is  best  seen  in  Views  Afoot, 
or  in  other  volumes  of  travel  which  may  attract  because  of  their 
subjects.  The  translation  of  Faust  should  not  be  forgotten. 

Among  the  better  short  poems  of  Boker  are  "A  Ballad  of  Sir 
John  Franklin,"  "Dirge  for  a  Soldier";  and  students  interested  in 
the  drama  may  possibly  wish  to  read  "Francisca  da  Rimini." 
Read  may  be  known  from  "Sheridan's  Ride." 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  A  study  might  be  made 
of  the  New  York  newspapers  and  their  relations  to  young  authors 
(see  Greeley's  Recollections,  etc.  Make  a  list  of  as  many  as  possible 
of  the  New  York  writers  who  held  editorial  positions,  and  trace 
the  journalistic  careers  of  some  of  them) ;  and  a  paper,  perhaps 
more  interesting  than  profitable,  might  be  compiled  on  the  reminis 
cences  of  the  famous  Pfaff's  restaurant  (see  Stoddard,  Recollections, 
Winter,  Old  Friends,  etc.). 

Suggested  topics  on  Whitman :  Whitman's  hospital  experiences 
as  told  in  Specimen  Days,  The  Wound- Dresser,  etc. ;  Whitman's 
treatment  of  the  sea  in  his  poems;  What  seems  "unpoetic"  in 


276    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Whitman's  work  ?  A  selection  of  quotable  expressions  from 
Leaves  of  Grass;  Whitman's  tributes  to  Lincoln  in  prose  and  verse. 

Suggested  topics  on  Stedman,  Stoddard,  Aldrich:  The  literary 
friendship  of  Stedman,  Stoddard,  Aldrich,  and  Taylor  (see  the 
biographies  of  each) ;  The  subjects  of  Stedman's  and  Stoddard's 
poems  compared  with  those  of  the  New  England  poets;  Choose 
the  ten  most  musical  poems  of  each  of  the  three  authors ;  The 
Story  of  a  Bad  Boy  compared  with  other  semi-autobiographic  books 
(e.g.,  Tom  Sawyer,  Howells's  A  Boy's  Town,  Warner's  Being  a  Boy). 

Suggested  topics  on  lesser  New  York  authors :  O'Brien's  stories 
compared  with  Poe's ;  Willis's  paraphrases  of  scripture  stories ; 
Curtis  as  a  social  preacher;  The  "Easy-Chair"  essays  (sub 
jects  treated,  comparison  with  other  informal  essays) ;  How  Beecher 
handled  a  hostile  audience  (a  study  of  the  Liverpool  and  Man 
chester  addresses) ;  A  comparison  of  one  of  Melville's  stories  with 
Two  Years  before  the  Mast. 

Suggested  topics  on  Mr.  Howells  and  Mr.  James  :  The  Character 
of  Silas  Lapham ;  Mr.  Howells's  portrayal  of  some  women  charac 
ters  ;  How  Mr.  Howells  makes  his  characters  seem  real ;  A  com 
parison  of  Mr.  James's  realism  with  Mr.  Howells's  (characters, 
scenes,  object  in  writing) ;  The  supernatural  in  some  stories  of  Mr. 
James  and  Mr.  Howells  (compare  with  each  other,  or  with  some 
earlier  writer). 

Suggested  topics  on  Pennsylvania  writers :  Striking  experiences 
from  Views  Afoot;  Old-fashioned  books  of  travel  (compare  two  or 
more  works,  e.g.,  one  of  Taylor's  volumes,  one  of  Willis's,  Outre- 
Mer,  Emerson's  English  Traits,  Hawthorne's  Our  Old  Home,  one 
of  Curtis's  travel  volumes,  Howells's  Venetian  Life,  etc.) ;  or,  Views 
Afoot  compared  with  some  recent  books  of  travel.  The  ten  most 
musical  of  Taylor's  poems;  Boker's  "Francesca  da  Rimini"  com 
pared  with  Stephen  Phillips's  treatment  of  the  same  theme  (rather 
difficult) ;  "Sheridan's  Ride"  —  the  event  and  the  poem. 

THE  SOUTH 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  Useful  works  on  Southern  literature 
in  general  are :  Moses,  The  Literature  of  the  South,  Holliday,  A 
History  of  Southern  Literature,  Link,  Pioneers  of  Southern  Litera 
ture,  Baskerville,  Southern  Writers,  Pickett,  Literary  Hearthstones 
of  Dixie,  Hubner,  Representative  Southern  Poets,  Trent,  Southern 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT  277 

Writers;  Selections  in  Prose  and  Verse,  Painter,  The  Poets  of  Vir 
ginia,  Wauchope,  The  Writers  of  South  Carolina. 

The  best  life  of  POE  is  that  by  George  E.  Woodberry  (two  vol 
umes,  1909 ;  not  to  be  confounded  with  an  earlier  one-volume  life 
by  the  same  author).  Since  there  are  so  many  untrue  and  even 
wild  stories  regarding  Poe's  life  the  student  should  be  sure  to  de 
pend  on  recent  and  reliable  biographical  sketches.  The  two  best 
editions  of  Poe's  works  are  those  edited  by  Harrison  and  by  Sted- 
man  &  Woodberry.  An  idea  of  Poe's  criticism  may  be  gained  from 
"The  Poetic  Principle,"  "The  Philosophy  of  Composition,"  two 
reviews  of  Hawthorne's  Twice  Told  Tales,  and  other  reviews  of  the 
student's  own  choosing.  The  following  list  of  poems  is  fairly  rep 
resentative :  "To  Science,"  "To  Helen"  (Helen,  thy  beauty  is  to 
me),  "Israfel,"  "The  Sleeper,"  "Lenore,"  "The  Haunted  Palace," 
"Dreamland,"  "The  Raven,"  "Ulalume,"  "Annabel  Lee,"  "The 
Bells."  The  tales  are  of  so  many  different  kinds  and  tastes  differ 
so  widely  that  it  is  hard  to  suggest  a  list  for  study,  but  a  selection 
may  be  made  from  the  following :  "MS.  found  in  a  Bottle,"  "Mo- 
rella,"  "The  Unparalleled  Adventures  of  one  Hans  Pfaall,"  "The 
Assignation,"  "Shadow,"  "The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher," 
"William  Wilson,"  "The  Man  of  the  Crowd,"  "The  Murders  in 
the  Rue  Morgue,"  "The  Masque  of  the  Red  Death,"  "The  Pit 
and  the  Pendulum,"  "The  Gold-Bug,"  "The  Tell-Tale  Heart," 
"The  Purloined  Letter,"  "The  Imp  of  the  Perverse,"  "The  Cask 
of  Amontillado,"  "Landor's  Cottage." 

There  is  a  good  life  of  SIMMS  by  W.  D.  Trent.  The  Yemassee 
is  probably  the  best  of  Simms's  novels  with  which  to  begin,  and  this 
may  be  followed  by  The  Partisan  and  Mellichampe. 

Representative  poems  by  Timrod  are:  "Spring,"  "The  Cotton 
Boll,"  "Carolina,"  "Charleston,"  "Ode";  by  Hayne,  "Aspect  of 
the  Pines,"  "A  Dream  of  the  South  Winds,"  "In  Harbor";  by 
P.  P.  Cooke,  "Florence  Vane";  by  Abram  J.  Ryan,  "The  Con 
quered  Banner,"  "The  Sword  of  Lee."  Leather  Stocking  and  Silk, 
or  The  Virginia  Comedians  should  be  the  first  choice  from  J.  E. 
Cooke's  works. 

The  standard  life  of  LANIER  is  that  of  Minis.  Among  repre 
sentative  poems  of  Lanier  are  "Sunrise,"  "The  Marshes  of  Glynn," 
"Song  of  the  Chattahoochee,"  "The  Mocking  Bird,"  "The  Re 
venge  of  Hamish,"  "Corn,"  "The  Symphony,"  "A  Ballad  of  Trees 


278    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

and  the  Master,"  "Evening  Song,"  "Betrayal,"  "Night  and  Day." 
The  beginner  is  likely  to  spend  little  time  on  Lanier's  prose,  but 
may  if  he  wishes  dip  into  the  letters,  and  glance  at  the  Science  of 
English  Verse,  and  some  of  the  critical  essays. 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  Papers  might  be  prepared 
on  literary  conditions  in  various  cities  of  the  South,  especially 
Charleston  (See  Trent,  Life  of  Simms,  etc.) ;  and  on  The  South 
ern  Literary  Messenger  (See  Minor,  The  Southern  Literary 
Messenger). 

Suggested  topics  on  Poe :  Poe's  theory  of  poetry  and  its  exem 
plification  in  his  own  poems  (See  "The  Poetic  Principle,"  etc.); 
What  devices  does  Poe  use  to  make  his  poems  musical  ?  A  study 
of  the  changes  that  Poe  made  in  two  or  three  of  his  poems  (e.g., 
"To  Helen,"  "The  Sleeper,"  "Lenore");  Poe's  attack  on  Long 
fellow  (See  Harrison's  Virginia  edition  of  Poe,  XII,  41-106) ; 
Poe's  theory  of  the  short  story  and  its  exemplification  in  his  own 
stories  (See  his  reviews  of  Hawthorne) ;  Poe's  choice  of  scenes  and 
settings  for  his  stories ;  The  characters  in  Poe's  stories  (Why  does 
he  not  tell  us  more  about  them  ?) ;  Poe's  use  of  the  supernatural 
(Compare  with  Irving's  and  Hawthorne's) ;  Poe's  detective  stories 
compared  with  those  of  his  successors;  Resemblances  between 
"The  Gold-Bug"  and  Stevenson's  Treasure  Island;  Poe's  humor. 

Suggested  topics  on  other  Southern  writers :  Early  life  in  the 
South  as  portrayed  by  Simms;  One  of  Simms's  novels  compared 
with  one  of  Cooper's ;  Simms's  treatment  of  the  Indians ;  Timrod's 
war  poems  compared  with  Whittier's  or  Lowell's ;  Timrod  and 
Hayne  —  the  story  of  their  friendship,  the  men  and  their  poems 
compared ;  The  political  and  sectional  poems  of  Timrod  and  Hayne 
compared  with  those  of  Northern  writers,  e.g.,  Whittier ;  Represent 
ative  Southern  songs  of  sentiment  ("My  life  is  like  the  summer 
rose,"  "Florence  Vane,"  "I  break  the  glass,"  and  others  to  be 
found  by  the  student) ;  Father  Ryan's  songs  of  the  South  compared 
with  those  of  antislavery  writers  at  the  North;  J.  E.  Cooke  as  a 
writer  of  old-fashioned  romance. 

Suggested  topics  on  Lanier :  Lanier's  theory  of  poetry  illustrated 
from  his  own  verse  (difficult) ;  Southern  life  as  reflected  in  Lanier's 
poems;  Lanier's  treatment  of  Nature  in  the  poems;  Lanier's 
poems  compared  with  those  of  Poe  (How  does  each  poet  produce 
his  peculiar  effects?). 


THE  PERIOD  OF  GREATEST  ACHIEVEMENT        279 


THE   WEST 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  If  any  student  is  not  already  familiar 
with  Lincoln's  "Gettysburg  Address,"  and  "Second  Inaugural 
Address,"  he  should  read  these,  and  may  follow  them  with  parts  of 
the  debate  with  Douglas  and  other  speeches. 

Among  the  most  representative  novels  of  Edward  Eggleston  are 
The  Hoosier  School- Master,  The  Circuit  Rider,  and  Roxy.  The 
best  work  of  Lew  Wallace  is  Ben-Hur.  John  Hay's  distinctive 
humor  is  seen  in  the  Pike  County  Ballads,  of  which  two  of  the  best 
known  are  "Jim  Bludso  of  the  Prairie  Belle,"  and  "Little 
Breeches."  Hay's  serious  poetry  is  less  important;  his  early 
prose  may  be  seen  in  Castilian  Days,  and  his  later  and  more  serious 
work  in  the  life  of  Lincoln.  Selections  such  as  may  be  found  in 
Stedman  &  Hutchinson,  A  Library  of  American  Literature,  will  be 
ample  for  "Josh  Billings." 

It  is  hard  to  suggest  a  brief  list  of  readings  that  is  fully  represent 
ative  of  Mark  Twain.  If  the  student  could  read  but  one  book  per 
haps  the  best  would  be  Huckleberry  Finn.  This,  Tom  Sawyer, 
Joan  of  Arc,  The  Connecticut  Yankee  in  King  Arthur's  Court,  and 
Pudd'nhead  Wilson  can  be  fairly  judged  only  when  read  entire. 
Works  like  Innocents  Abroad,  Roughing  It,  and  Life  on  the  Mis 
sissippi  can  well  be  read  by  extracts. 

There  are  lives  of  BRET  HARTE  by  Pemberton, .  Merwin,  and 
Boynton,  none  of  them  very  satisfactory.  Representative  poems  of 
Harte  are  "Jim,"  "Her  Letter,"  "Grizzly,"  "Plain  Talk  from 
Truthful  James,"  "The  Society  upon  the  Stanislaus,"  "Dickens 
in  Camp."  Among  his  best  tales  are  "The  Luck  of  Roaring  Camp," 
"The  Outcasts  of  Poker  Flat,"  "Tennessee's  Partner." 

Representatives  of  Sill's  poems  are:  "A  Fool's  Prayer," 
"Tempted";  of  "Joaquin"  Miller's,  "Columbus,"  "Crossing  the 
plains";  of  Helen  Hunt  Jackson's,  "Poppies  in  the  Wheat,"  "Cor 
onation."  The  most  popular  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  prose  works,  and 
probably  the  best  to  read,  is  Ramona. 

Suggestions  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  Students  especially  in 
terested  might  prepare  papers  on  early  magazines  in  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois  (See  Venable,  Beginnings  of  Literary  Culture  in  the 
Ohio  Valley) ;  or  on  the  early  history  of  the  Overland  Monthly. 

Suggested  topics  on  lesser  authors :    The  songs  of  Stephen  C. 


280     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Foster ;  Lincoln  as  an  orator  (contrasted  with  Webster  and  others 
of  the  old  school) ;  Frontier  life  as  portrayed  in  one  of  Eggleston's 
novels;  Striking  descriptive  passages  in  Ben-Hur;  Hay's  dialect 
poems  compared  with  Lowell's. 

Suggested  topics  on  Mark  Twain :  Mark  Twain's  humor  com 
pared  with  that  of  "Artemus  Ward";  with  that  of  Lowell  and 
Holmes ;  The  element  of  exaggeration  in  Mark  Twain's  humor ; 
The  element  of  irreverence  in  Mark  Twain's  humor ;  Striking  de 
scriptive  passages  from  Huckleberry  Finn  and  Life  on  the  Mississippi; 
Mark  Twain's  patriotism  as  seen  in  his  works ;  Mark  Twain's 
view  of  slavery  as  seen  in  Huckleberry  Finn  and  Pudd'nhead  Wilson. 

Suggested  topics  on  writers  of  the  Pacific  coast :  The  moral 
teaching  of  Harte's  tales ;  Harte's  humor,  as  seen  in  his  verse 
and  prose;  Harte's  treatment  of  nature;  Harte's  pictures  of 
Western  life  compared  with  those  of  Mark  Twain  in  Roughing  It, 
etc. ;  Resemblances  between  Harte  and  Dickens ;  Mrs.  Jackson's 
view  of  the  Indians  compared  with  that  of  other  American  writers 
of  fiction. 


CHAPTER  V 

RECENT  YEARS 
1883-1914 

General  Conditions.  —  If  a  literary  period  is  to  be  judged 
by  its  masterpieces  and  great  names,  the  last  thirty  years 
in  American  literary  history  have  been  far  less  important 
than  the  fifty  that  went  just  before.  Many  of  the  writers 
who  were  discussed  in  the  preceding  chapter  lived  and  worked 
far  into  this  later  period,  and  two  or  three  are  still  living, 
but  no  man  who  had  not  made  his  reputation  before  1883 
is  quite  sure  of  a  place  with  the  greater  authors  of  the  last 
century.  There  have  been,  and  are,  many  good  writers, 
perhaps  more  than  ever  before.  There  have  been,  and  are, 
many  good  magazines;  and  more  American  books  are  read 
abroad  than  at  any  preceding  time;  but  there  is  a  lack  of 
men  of  such  preeminence  that  they  are  sure  of  lasting  fame. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  the  same  is  to  a 
great  extent  true  in  English  literature  of  the  same  period. 
There  are  those  who  believe  that  this  indicates  a  change  in 
literary  history;  that  the  age  of  the  few  great  writers  has 
passed,  and  that  of  literary  democracy  has  come.  It  seems 
more  likely,  however,  that  the  English-speaking  peoples 
have  been  experiencing  one  of  the  periods  of  uncertainty 
that  is  likely  to  follow  a  creative  period.  If  this  is  so  we  may 
hope  that  in  the  fullness  of  time  there  will  appear  other  great 
writers,  greater,  perhaps,  than  any  that  have  gone  before. 

281 


282    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

This  chapter  will  be  occupied  chiefly  with  the  discussion 
of  general  movements.  An  attempt  will  be  made  to  esti 
mate  the  value  of  a  few  writers  whose  work  is  finished ;  and  a 
few  living  authors,  though  not  necessarily  the  most  impor 
tant,  will  be  mentioned  to  illustrate  tendencies  and  kinds  of 
writing.  In  general,  however,  specific  criticisms  of  men  and 
books  will  be  avoided.1 

It  was  said  at  the  conclusion  of  the  preceding  chapter  that 
shortly  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  older  sectionalism 
in  letters  passed  away.  With  the  development  of  the  rail 
road,  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  and  also  of  the  public 
library,  the  reasons  of  convenience  that  drew  authors  into  the 
greater  cities  have  largely  disappeared.  While  publishing  in- 
t  crests  are  grouped,  even  more  than  formerly,  in  a  few  centers, 
authors  are  scattered  over  the  entire  country.  It  is  possible 
for  a  writer  to  live  in  Georgia,  or  Indiana,  or  California,  and 
still  keep  in  touch  with  the  thought  of  the  time,  and  publish 
in  Xew  York  or  Boston  almost  as  well  as  if  he  lived  in  one 
of  these  cities.  One  result  of  this  scattered  residence  is 
that  there  are  no  longer  "  schools  "  or  closely  unified  groups 
of  authors.  Another  is  that  writers,  especially  writers  of 
prose  fiction,  make  more  and  better  use  than  before  of  local 
scenes,  characters,  and  dialects.  This  latter  manifestation 
of  sectionalism  is,  however,  only  on  the  surface.  In  spirit, 

1  The  discussion  in  a  formal  history  of  the  writings  of  contem 
poraries  is  always  a  difficult  and  a  dangerous  matter.  Much  of 
the  literary  criticism  of  the  past  is  a  warning  that  only  after  the 
lapse  of  a  reasonable  time  can  the  relative  value  of  an  author's 
work  be  safely  estimated.  This  does  not  mean  that  a  reader  should 
be  afraid  to  form  his  own  judgments,  or  to  say  what  he  thinks ; 
but  he  should  realize  that  he  is  likely  to  change  his  mind  after  a 
time.  The  discussion  of  recent  writings  under  the  guidance  of 
the  instructor  may  be  made  an  interesting  and  a  legitimate  part  of 
a  course  in  American  literature,  but  it  should  not  be  undertaken 
too  seriously. 


RECENT  YEARS  283 

American  literature  has  at  last  become  as  truly  national, 
perhaps,  as  the  literature  of  so  great  and  complex  a  country 
can  become.  To  this  new  literature  representatives  of  all 
parts  of  the  country  are  contributing.  It  is  especially  nota 
ble  that  the  South,  which  has  never  before  produced  litera 
ture  in  proportion  to  the  culture  and  intellect  of  its  people, 
has  done  its  full  share  in  recent  years. 

One  important  fact  in  the  literary  development  of  the  last 
generation  has  been  the  growth  in  number  and  importance 
of  magazines.  The  invention  of  new  processes  of  illustra 
tion  and  the  development  of  a  system  by  which  periodicals 
receive  great  returns  from  advertising  have  led  to  the  creation 
of  magazines  such  as  would  have  been  impossible  fifty  years 
ago.  These  are  important,  on  the  one  hand,  because  they 
are  able  to  command  the  productions  of  the  best  writers, 
and,  on  the  other,  because  they  form  a  great  part  of  the 
reading  of  the  general  public.  With  this  development,  which 
is  on  the  whole  for  the  better,  has  come  some  loss.  The  older 
type  of  literary  magazine,  which  like  the  Atlantic  fifty  years 
ago  appealed  to  a  somewhat  select  class  of  readers,  hardly 
exists  to-day.  Even  the  better  periodicals  suffer  somewhat 
from  their  attempts  to  be  popular,  and  have  less  literary 
distinction  than  formerly.  Since  the  very  best  writers 
contribute  largely  to  the  magazines,  it  follows  that  almost 
all  literary  writing  has  experienced  a  similar  change.  Here, 
as  elsewhere,  the  tendency  is  toward  the  greater  democracy 
of  letters.  More  persons  than  ever  before  are  able  to  ap 
preciate  good  literature,  but  on  the  other  hand  writers  arc 
asking  more  than  ever  before  what  will  appeal  to  popular- 
taste.  Whether  this  writing  for  the  average  man  does  not 
temporarily  lower  the  artistic  standard  may  well  be  ques 
tioned;  but  no  one  who  has  faith  in  mankind  will  become 
pessimistic  over  the  future  of  literature. 


284     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Writers  of  the  Short  Story.  —  Owing  partly,  perhaps,  to 
national  taste,  and  partly  to  practical  considerations  con 
nected  with  magazine  publication,  the  form  of  literature 
which  has  seemed  of  most  importance  in  the  last  few  years 
has  been  prose  fiction,  and  particularly  the  short  story.  It 
has  been  seen  that  Poe  was  the  first  critic  to  give  the  short 
story  high  rank  as  an  independent  literary  form;  and  since 
his  day  Americans  have  done  much  toward  its  development. 
Some  later  critics  have  proposed  a  hyphenated  word,  "  short- 
story,"  to  denote  works  which  conform  to  their  theories  of 
technique  —  theories  many  of  which  are  based  on  or  devel 
oped  from  those  of  Poe.  The  fact  that  the  short  story  is  so 
compact  a  whole,  to  be  read  in  a  short  time,  and  to  be  judged 
by  its  total  impression,  has  been  an  incentive  to  revision  and 
careful  workmanship.  The  possibility  of  producing  a  fin 
ished  piece  of  prose  fiction  within  the  compass  of  a  few  thou 
sand  words  has  led  many  persons  to  try  their  hands  at  author 
ship.  While  the  result  has  been  a  great  mass  of  mediocre 
work,  it  is  likely  that  some  have  discovered  their  own  abili 
ties  who  would  never  have  been  able  to  carry  through  the 
labor  of  writing  a  novel. 

There  have  been  hundreds  of  short-story  writers  whose 
merits  have  been  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  appear  in  the 
better  magazines,  and  it  is  hard  to  choose  a  brief  list  for 
mention.  Those  named  are  not  necessarily  the  most  ex 
cellent,  and  indeed,  since  there  are  so  many  kinds  of  short 
stories,  relative  excellence  is  hard  to  determine.  Several 
writers  already  discussed,  among  them  Bret  Harte,  Thomas 
Bailey  Aldrich,  Mr.  William  Dean  Howells,  and  Mr.  Henry 
James,  continued  to  write  short  stories  after  1883.  Another 
writer  of  finished  short  tales  was  HENRY  CUTLER  BUXXER, 
a  New  York  man,  for  nearly  twenty  years  editor  of  Puck. 
Many  of  the  best  examples  of  his  work  were  collected  into  the 


RECENT  YEARS 


285 


volumes  Zadoc  Pine  and  other  Stories,  Love  in  old  Cloathes 
and  other  Stories,  and  Short  Sixes.  There  is  a  fineness  and 
delicacy  about  his  stories,  as  about  his  verse  and  miscellaneous 
writings,  and  he  frequently  shows  the  perception  of  humor 
which  made  him  the  successful  editor  of  a  comic  paper, 
though  he  was  by  no  means  a  newspaper  humorist.  FRAN 
CIS  (FRANK)  R.  STOCK 
TON,  an  original  and 
whimsical  genius,  was 
also  connected  with  New 
York  periodicals.  He 
wrote  much  —  too  much 
and  too  hastily  for  his 
fame  —  and  he  tried  both 
short  stories  and  novels. 
The  best  of  the  former, 
"The  Lady;  or  the 
Tiger  ?  "  is  the  most  per 
fect  of  American  hoax 
stories,  and  is  interest 
ing  as  a  hoax  which  will 
stand  rereading.  Some 
of  his  other  tales,  such 
as  "Negative  Gravity" 
and  "  The  Transferred  Ghost,"  show  his  originality  in 
thinking  out  absurd  situations  and  presenting  them  so  that 
they  will  seem  at  least  half  real.  Of  his  longer  stories 
the  "  Rudder  Grange."  group  has  some  of  the  same 
qualities.  Stockton,  too,  had  his  humor,  less  winningly 
genial  than  Bunner's,  but  of  a  fascinating  and  ingenious  sort. 
A  large  number  of  writers  have  produced  "  local  color  " 
stories  —  that  is,  stories  in  which  much  attention  is  given 
to  the  portrayal  of  scenes  and  characters  peculiar  to  a  par- 


Frank  R.  Stockton. 


286     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


ticular  section  of  the  country.  SARAH  ORNE  JEWETT  pic 
tured  both  in  short  stories  and  in  novels  conditions  in  rural 
Maine,  where  she  passed  her  life.  She  had  more  sympathy 
with  the  persons  she  represented  than  many  authors  of  local 
color  stories,  and  while  her  work  is  less  amusing  than  that 
of  an  external  observer  might  be,  it  is  more  genuine.  JOEL 
CHANDLER  HARRIS,  of  Georgia,  created  a  local  color  char 
acter  in  Uncle  Remus, 
an  old-time  darkey,  but 
the  tales  which  Uncle 
Remus  tells  are  not 
based  on  the  author's 
observation,  but  on  the 
folklore  of  the  negro 
race.  Harris  wrote  far 
too  fast  and  too  much, 
but  his  early  Uncle  Re 
mus  stories  are  a  unique 
and  lasting  creation. 
The  most  popular  is 
probably  "  The  Wonder 
ful  Tar-Baby  Story." 

A  great  number  of 
writers  of  local  color 
stories  are  still  living.  MRS.  MARY  E.  WILKINS  FREEMAN 
made  her  reputation  by  her  portrayal  of  humble,  provincial 
New  England  life;  and  though  she  has  since  attempted  other 
kinds  of  work,  it  is  probable  that  she  is  at  her  best  in  such 
tales  as  "A  New  England  Nun,"  and  "The  Revolt  of 
Mother."  PROFESSOR  BRANDER  MATTHEWS  of  Columbia 
University  has  written  some  finished  sketches,  the  nature 
of  which  is  indicated  by  the  title  of  one  volume,  Vignettes 
of  Manhattan.  MR.  RICHARD  HARDING  DAVIS  is  the 


Joel  Chandler  Harris. 


RECENT  YEARS  287 

author  of  a  variety  of  stories,  but  many  of  those  which 
won  him  his  early  reputation  picture  scenes  in  Now 
York  City.  MR.  HAMLIN  GARLAND  has  represented  graphi 
cally  the  monotonous  and  unlovely  life  of  the  farmers  of 
the  Middle  West.  The  South  has  been  especially  favored 
by  local  color  writers.  MR.  THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE  has 
pictured  the  old-time  Virginian  and  the  old-time  negro  in 
charmingly  sentimental  and  romantic  tales.  MR.  F.  HOP- 
KINSON  SMITH  has  written  with  more  humor  and  dramatic 
force  of  certain  types  of  Southern  character.  MR.  GEORGE 
W.  CABLE  found  his  literary  material  among  the  New  Or 
leans  Creoles.  Miss  MARY  N.  MURFREE,  who  writes  as 
"  Charles  Egbert  Craddock,"  and  MR.  JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 
have  presented  different  aspects  of  the  life  in  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky.  MR.  OWEN  WISTER,  though  he  lives  in  the  East, 
has  used  literary  material  from  the  West  and  Southwest. 
Indeed,  nearly  every  section  of  the  country  where  life  is 
distinctive  or  peculiar  has  been  portrayed  in  fiction.  The 
writings  of  KATE  DOUGLAS  WIGGIN  (Mrs.  George  C.  Riggs) 
abound  in  local  color,  though  the  author  does  not  confine 
herself  to  any  one  sort  of  scene.  Several  of  her  early  tales, 
like  The  Birds'  Christmas  Carol  and  Timothy's  Quest  are  sym 
pathetic  and  slightly  sentimental  stories  of  child  life.  The 
scenes  of  some  of  her  later  writings  are  laid  in  England. 

Writers  of  Novels.  —  While  the  short  story  has  been  the 
favorite  form  for  the  tired  and  hurried  reader,  and  has 
received  much  attention  from  the  critics,  the  novel  has  con 
tinued  to  hold  its  owrn.  Many  of  the  story  writers  named 
in  the  preceding  paragraphs  have  written  novels;  several 
other  authors,  while  they  may  have  attempted  short  storios, 
are  primarily  novelists.  In  New  York  PAUL  LEICESTER 
FORD  wrote  some  clever  novels  which  show  careful  labor  but 
are  somewhat  lacking  in  literary  finish.  His  best  book  is 


288     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


The  Honorable  Peter  Sterling,  which  while  not  historical  fic 
tion  suggests  the  life  of  Grover  Cleveland.  Janice  Meredith 
is  a  sentimental  historical  novel  of  the  Revolutionary  time. 
A  far  more  finished  story-teller  was  FRANCIS  MARION  CRAW 
FORD,  who  though  descended  from  old  American  families 
was  born  and  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Italy.  Crawford 
intended  that  his  novels  should  be  read  for  the  pure  pleasure 

of  the  story;  but  though 
he  would  be  classed  as  a 
romanticist  he  was  a  ro 
manticist  who  observed 
closely,  who  painted  his 
backgrounds  true  to  life, 
and  whose  characters 
always  act  from  reason 
able  motives.  He  has 
left  a  long  list  of  clever, 
fascinating  stories, 
among  the  best  of  which 
are  A  Cigarette- Maker's 
Romance,  and  a  trilogy 
with  the  scene  laid  in 
Rome  —  Saracinesca, 
Sant'  Ilario,  and  Don 

Orsino.  EDWARD  NOTES  WESTCOTT,  of  New  York  State, 
left  one  clever  and  carefully  executed  study  of  character, 
David  Harum.  FRANK  NORRIS,  in  The  Octopus  and  The 
Pit,  showed  the  tendency  to  treat  economic  evils  in  novels. 
In  studying  these  recent  developments  and  experiments  in 
fiction  one  must  not  forget  that  much  of  the  work  of  Mr. 
Howells  and  Mr.  James  has  been  done  since  1883. 

During  the  last  two  or  three  decades  there  has  appeared 
a  large  number  of  novels  each  of  which  has  taken  a  place  in 


F.  Marion  Crawford. 


RECENT  YEARS  289 

the  list  of  the  "  ten  best  sellers,"  and  then  been  pushed  aside 
by  later  favorites.  About  the  close  of  the  century  many  of 
these  were  historical  fiction ;  of  late  many  of  them  are  studies 
of  social  and  economic  problems;  and  there  are  always  some 
not  readily  classified.  Most  of  them  show  a  tendency  toward 
realism,  though  there  have  been  a  few  notable  exceptions. 
All  of  these  novels  have  some  literary  merit,  and  possibly 
the  verdict  of  time  may  give  some  of  them  a  sure  place  on 
the  library  shelves,  but  as  yet  this  is  in  no  instance  certain. 

To  mention  any  of  the  living  novelists  is  to  invite  indig 
nant  protest  because  others  are  omitted.  Among  those 
who  combine  literary  finish  and  creative  imagination  with 
the  qualities  that  make  for  popularity  is  MR.  WINSTON 
CHURCHILL.  Mr.  Churchill's  novels  Richard  Carvel,  The 
Crossing,  and  The  Crisis  are  historical,  and  some  of  his  more 
recent  work  shows  a  tendency  to  discuss  present-day  prob 
lems.  To  Have  and  To  Hold,  by  Miss  MARY  JOHNSTON,  is 
another  of  the  historical  novels  which  was  widely  read  when 
it  first  appeared.  MRS.  MARGARET  WADE  DELAND  might 
have  been  listed  with  the  writers  of  short  stories,  but  it  was 
by  her  novel  John  Ward,  Preacher  that  she  first  became 
known.  MRS.  EDITH  WHARTON  is  the  author  of  earnest 
and  finished  novels,  the  best  to  date  probably  being  The 
House  of  Mirth.  In  The  Common  Lot  and  other  novels 
PROFESSOR  ROBERT  HERRICK  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
studies  men  and  women  as  they  are  affected  by  the  artifi 
ciality  and  complexity  of  modern  life. 

Writers  of  Verse. — There  has  been  no  "school "  of  Amer 
ican  poets  during  the  last  thirty  years,  and  the  sporadic 
verse  of  various  authors  has  been  somewhat  hesitating  and 
uncertain.  The  tendency  has  been  to  produce  brief  rather 
than  long  poems.  Probably  the  American  poets  of  the  ear 
lier  time  who  have  most  influenced  their  followers  are  Em- 


290     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

erson  and  Whitman,  though  the  manner  of  the  latter  has 
not  often  been  really  imitated.  In  contrast,  however,  to 
the  freedom  for  which  these  poets  stand  have  been  various 
attempts  at  the  finished  and  conventional  forms  known  as 
"  society  verse."  The  light  and  charming  poems  of  Henry 
Cuyler  Bunner.  already  mentioned,  are  of  this  class. 

RICHARD  HOVEY,  a  native  of  Illinois  and  at  the  time  of 
his  early  death  a  professor  in  Barnard  College,  New  York, 
wrote  some  ambitious  poems,  chief  of  which  is  Launcelot 
and  Guenevere,  "  a  poem  in  dramas,"  in  four  parts.  This 
shows  immaturity,  but  it  also  shows  energy  and  poetic  en 
thusiasm,  and  no  small  skill  in  verse,  and  when  it  was  pub 
lished  seemed  a  promise  of  better  things  to  come.  Some  of 
Hovey's  lyrics,  a  number  of  which  were  published  jointly 
with  his  friend  MR.  BLISS  CARMEN  in  Songs  from  Vagabondia, 
and  his  political  "  Unmanifest  Destiny  "  are  among  the  best 
short  poems  of  the  last  decade  of  the  last  century.  Another 
poet  wrho  died  too  soon  to  fulfill  his  promise  was  WILLIAM 
VAUGHN  MOODY,  a  Harvard  graduate,  and  for  some  years 
a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  His 
poems,  the  best  of  which  is  the  "  Ode  in  Time  of  Hesitation," 
have  both  power  and  melody,  and  occasionally  he  rises  to 
heights  rarely  attained  in  recent  years.  During  the  latter 
part  of  his  brief  career  he  turned  to  dramatic  writing,  and 
produced  two  successful  stage  plays,  The  Great  Divide  and 
The  Faith  Healer.  PAUL  L.  DUNBAR,  a  negro  writer  living 
in  Ohio,  also  died  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four.  His  powrer 
was  far  less  than  that  of  Hovey  and  Moody,  as  his  oppor 
tunities  were  less,  but  his  poems  show  talent  and  attracted 
much  attention  because  of  the  general  interest  in  the  intel 
lectual  development  of  the  negro  race. 

EMILY  DICKINSON,  who  really  wrote  in  the  earlier  period, 
but  whose  poems  were  not  published  until  after  her  death 


'' 


RECENT  YEA  US  291 

in  1886,  lived  a  retired  life  at  Amherst,  Massachusetts.  Her 
poems  are  all  short,  and  are  notable  for  their  terseness  and 
pointedness  of  expression.  Most  of  them  are  comments  on 
life  and  on  her  own  emotional  experiences.  RICHARD  WAT 
SON  GILDER,  long  an  editor  of  the  Century  Magazine,  was 
the  author  of  many  finished  poems,  a  few  of  which  show  his 
interest  in  social  reforms.  FATHER  JOHN  B.  TABB,  of  Mary 
land,  wrote  many  sonnets  and  brief  poems  with  fine  emo 
tional  quality  and  great  perfection  of  form. 

Few  of  the  living  writers  of  verse  can  be  discussed  here. 
No  doubt  the  most  widely  read  is  MR.  JAMES  WHITCOMB 
RILEY,  of  Indiana.  Mr.  Riley's  sentimental  and  moralizing 
poems  of  everyday  life  have  some  of  the  weaker  qualities 
that  helped  to  make  Longfellow's  work  popular,  but  they 
show  a  lack  of  calm  dignity  and  a  striving  after  effect  of 
which  the  older  poet  was  never  guilty.  The  REVEREND 
HENRY  Y.\\  DYKE,  formerly  pastor  of  a  New  York  City 
church  and  later  professor  in  Princeton  University,  writes 
smooth  verse,  much  of  it  expressing  his  appreciation  of 
nature.  Miss  EDITH  THOMAS,  of  Ohio,  has  written  many 
restrained  short  poems.  MR.  -MADISON  J.  CAWEIN,  of  Louis 
ville,  Kentucky,  is  the  author  of  a  great  quantity  of  verse, 
the  best  part  of  wrhich  is  lyrics  descriptive  of  nature  and  of 
Southern  scenes.  The  sensitive  and  restrained  poems  of 
PROFESSOR  GEORGE  E.  WOODBERRY  appeal  to  a  limited 
group  of  readers,  but  many  critics  place  him  in  the  first  rank 
of  living  American  poets. 

Writers  of  Prose  Essays.  —  The  growth  of  magazines  has 
led  to  the  development  of  a  great  number  of  prose  essayists 
who  write  clearly  and  entertainingly.  The  last  few  years 
have  evolved  a  new  form  of  magazine  writing  in  which  polit 
ical,  economic,  and  social  questions  are  expounded  with  a 
graphic  clearness,  and  solutions  are  presented  with  a  plausibil- 


292     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

ity  heretofore  rare  in  such  discussion.  Many  of  the  writers 
of  such  articles  received  their  original  training  as  newspaper 
men,  and  their  devices  of  style  and  arrangement  are  evolved 
and  refined  from  the  practices  of  the  journalist.  In  state 
ment  of  fact  they  are  likely,  while  always  adhering  to  literal 
truth,  to  sacrifice  accuracy  to  picturesqueness,1  and  in  style 
they  regard  attractiveness  and  the  appearance  of  frankness 
before  all  other  qualities.  Whether  this  type  of  essay  will 
develop  into  a  new  literary  form  remains  to  be  seen ;  but  those 
who  have  so  far  written  it  are  likely  to  pay  for  their  immediate 
popularity  by  being  forgotten  in  the  near  future.  Besides 
these  essayists  there  have  been  many  others  who  appeal  to 
the  general  public  in  various  ways,  and  still  others  who  have 
addressed  themselves  to  a  more  restricted  class  of  readers. 

EUGENE  FIELD  can  best  be  considered  among  the  essayists, 
though  he  wrote  both  fiction  and  verse.  A  native  of  St. 
Louis,  he  was  all  his  life  connected  with  Western  newspapers, 
and  his  last  and  best  work  was  done  in  Chicago.  Here  he 
edited  in  the  Daily  Xews,  afterwards  the  Record,  a  column 
in  which  he  discussed  not  only  men  and  events  of  the  day, 
but  books  and  literature,  ancient  and  modern.  His  point 
of  view  and  his  manner  of  presentation  were  individual,  but 
he  had  genuine  appreciation  for  some  of  the  good  and  es 
pecially  for  some  of  the  curious  things  in  literature,  and  he 

1  It  was  this  fact  that  caused  the  term  "muck-rakers"  to  be 
applied  to  some  writers  of  this  class.  These  men  knew  from  their 
journalistic  experience  that  readers  in  general  are  more  likely  to  be 
impressed  by  the  bad  than  by  the  good  in  an  institution,  particularly 
if  the  institution  is  an  unpopular  one.  Therefore,  while  they  always 
stated  things  so  that  they  could  not  be  accused  of  deliberate  untruth, 
and  while  they  always  affected  perfect  fairness,  they  skillfully  gave 
the  impression  that  things  were  worse  than  they  are.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  who  favor  some  particular  remedy  for  social  ills  always 
succeed  in  creating  the  belief  that  conditions  are  ideal  where  their 
pet  reforms  have  been  adopted. 


RECENT  YEARS 


293 


succeeded  in  bringing  these  to  the  attention  of  the  man  in 
the  street  as  no  professional  critic  could  have  done.  One  of 
his  favorite  authors  was  Horace,  and  he  published  a  series 
of  translations  which  seem  a  trifle  flippant  to  the  classical 
scholar,  but  which  remind  one  as  school  editions  do  not  that 
the  old  Roman  was  a  very  live  and  a  very  natural  sort  of 
man.  Field's  prose  tales, 
light  poems,  and  songs 
for  and  about  children 
have  been  very  popular; 
but  he  is  perhaps  most 
significant  for  his  at 
tempts  to  find  in  classic 
literature  something  that 
would  appeal  to  the 
average  reader,  and  to 
present  this  through  the 
medium  of  a  daily  paper. 
LAFCADIO  HEARN  was 
an  international  figure, 
who  hardly  belongs  to 
any  one  land,  but  who 
had  most  associations 
with  America.  He  was 
born  in  Greece,  the  son 
of  an  Irish  army  officer 

and  a  Greek  mother;  was  educated  in  part  in  Paris,  lived 
for  twenty  years  in  America,  and  for  the  last  fourteen 
years  of  his  life  in  Japan.  In  America  he  was  connected 
with  newspapers  in  Cincinnati,  New  Orleans,  and  New  York, 
and  he  wrote  tales  and  sketches  which  are  characterized  by 
remarkably  luxurious  and  moving  passages  of  description. 
After  he  went  to  Japan  he  wrote  on  the  life,  art,  and  philos- 


Eugene  Field. 


294    AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

ophy  of  the  Japanese,  who  credit  him  with  having  understood 
their  civilization  better  than  any  other  Westerner  has  done. 
His  later  essays,  while  somewhat  more  restrained  than  the 
early  work,  show  the  same  richness  and  emotional  quality 
of  style. 

Among  living  essayists  are  MR.  SAMUEL  McCnoRD 
CROTHERS,  of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  whose  informal 
manner  sometimes  remotely  suggests  that  of  Charles  Lamb; 
and  Miss  AGNES  REPPLIER,  of  Philadelphia,  who  discusses 
varied  topics  in  a  way  that  is  always  individual  and  enter 
taining.  The  list  of  those  who  deal  especially  with  literary 
matters  includes  PROFESSOR  GEORGE  E.  WOODBERRY,  and 
PROFESSOR  BRANDER  MATTHEWS,  both  of  whom  have  been 
mentioned  for  their  creative  work,  and  MR.  PAUL  ELMER 
MORE,  for  some  time  editor  of  the  New  York  Nation.  More 
popular  in  method  are  MR.  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE  and  the 
REVEREND  HENRY  VAN  DYKE,  the  latter  already  mentioned 
as  a  writer  of  verse.  One  form  of  essay  which  has  had  much 
vogue  is  that  which  presents  the  results  of  sympathetic 
observation  of  nature.  The  most  notable  recent  writer  of 
this  sort  of  prose  is  MR.  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 

Humorists.  —  The  West  has  continued  to  produce  popu 
lar  humorists,  few  if  any  of  whom  are  sure  of  enduring  repu 
tations.  MR.  GEORGE  ADE,  who  has  occasionally  shown 
keen  insight  into  life  and  graphic  descriptive  power  in  the 
midst  of  much  cheap  and  superficial  work,  and  MR.  PETER 
DUNNE,  whose  "  Mr.  Dooley  "  papers  rank  as  our  best 
recent  political  satire,  both  began  their  careers  as  Chicago 
newspaper  men. 

CONCLUSION 

It  has  been  the  purpose  of  the  preceding  study  to  trace 
the  development  of  literary  writing  in  America,  viewing  it  so 


RECENT  YEARS  295 

far  as  possible  as  the  expression  of  American  life.  The 
student  has  seen  the  beginnings  made  by  the  first  English 
immigrants,  and  has  noticed  how  from  the  first  writings  in  the 
separate  colonies  developed  groups  or  schools  which  retained 
some  of  their  peculiarities  until  comparatively  recent  years. 
He  has  seen  how  each  of  these  groups  was  influenced  by  the 
national  idea,  first  during  the  Revolutionary  period,  then 
during  the  first  few  generations  of  constitutional  government; 
and  how,  after  the  fierce  struggle  of  the  Civil  War,  provincial 
differences  disappeared  and  American  literature  became 
national,  reflecting  the  life  and  feelings  of  all  sections  of  the 
country,  but  without  sectionalism.  He  has  seen  how  the 
older  ideals  of  American  life  culminated,  so  far  as  literary 
expression  was  concerned,  in  the  distinguished  group  of 
writers  who  flourished  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury;  and  he  has  observed  that  at  the  present  time  literature, 
though  varied  and  interesting  in  its  manifestations,  is  rep 
resented  by  no  very  distinguished  names.  Predictions  as 
to  the  future  are  impossible;  but  the  student  of  this  book 
may  be  reasonably  sure  that  within  his  normal  lifetime  will 
come  new  achievements,  and  developments  perhaps  even  yet 
undreamed  of.  These,  whatever  they  are,  will  have  their 
roots  in  the  past,  and  will  express  the  national  life  of  the 
future.  It  should  be  the  part  of  the  intelligent  American  to 
be  on  the  alert  for  new  writers  and  new  tendencies,  to  wel 
come  eagerly  the  good  as  it  appears,  yet  to  guard  against  the 
sudden  enthusiasm  which  often  bestows  on  the  latest  fad 
praise  that  soon  seems  ridiculous.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
preceding  survey  may  help,  not  only  to  a  better  understand 
ing  of  the  masters  who  have  already  written  but  to  an  ap 
preciation  of  the  value  and  significance  of  any  wrho  may 
follow.' 


296     AMERICAN  LITERATURE  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


READINGS  AND  TOPICS 

General  Suggestions.  —  The  student  should  remember  that  he 
reads  many  of  the  writings  of  this  time,  not  because  of  their  great 
literary  merit,  but  because  they  express  the  spirit  and  the  tendencies 
of  the  day.  He  should  also  remember  that  the  authors  referred 
to  in  the  lists  which  follow  are  not  necessarily  the  most  important, 
and  that  the  works  suggested  for  reading  are  not  necessarily  the 
best  productions  of  their  respective  authors. 

The  best  source  for  concise  biographical  information  regarding 
living  writers  is  the  latest  edition  of  Who's  Who  in  America.  See 
also,  Vedder,  American  Writers  of  To-Day,  Cooper,  Some  American 
Story-Tellers,  Rittenhouse,  Younger  American  Poets,  Sladen, 
Younger  American  Poets,  and  consult  the  Readers'  Guide  to  Periodi 
cal  Literature  for  references  to  articles  in  the  periodicals. 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  —  The  student  who  is  not  already  familiar 
with  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  Harper's  Magazine,  The  Century  Maga 
zine,  Scribner's  Magazine,  and  some  of  the  better  magazines  sold  at 
lower  prices  should  learn  so  far  as  he  can  by  inspection  the  chief 
characteristics  of  each. 

Representative  short  stories  by  Bunner  are  to  be  found  in  the 
volumes  Short  Sixes,  Love  in  Old  Cloathes. '  From  Stockton,  read 
"The  Lady;  or  the  Tiger?"  Other  clever  and  distinctive  short 
stories  of  Stockton  are  "The  Transferred  Ghost,"  "A  Tale  of 
Negative  Gravity."  Rudder  Grange  is  representative  of  his  longer 
stories.  Good  stories  by  Miss  Jewett  are  to  be  found  in  the  vol 
umes  A  White  Heron  and  other  Stories,  Tales  of  New  England,  e.g., 
"A  White  Heron,"  "The  Dulham  Ladies."  See  also,  The  Country 
of  the  Pointed  Firs.  Among  the  most  popular  of  Kate  Douglas 
Wiggins's  stories  are  The  Birds'  Christmas  Carol,  Timothy's  Quest, 
A  Cathedral  Courtship,  Penelope's  Progress.  Richard  Harding 
Davis's  stories  are  well  represented  in  the  volumes  Gallegher  and 
Other  Stories,  Van  Bibber  and  Others.  Among  those  that  might  be 
suggested  for  reading  are  "Gallegher,"  "Her  First  Appearance," 
"The  Bar  Sinister."  Any  of  the  earlier  Uncle  Remus  sketches  arc 
good.  "The  Wonderful  Tar-Baby  Story"  is  perhaps  the  favorite. 
Representatives  of  Mary  E.  Wilkins  Freeman's  distinctive  work 
may  be  found  in  A  New  England  Nun  and  Other  Stories,  The  Wind 
in  the  Rose-Bush  and  Other  Stories  of  the  Supernatural.  Suggested 


RECENT  YEARS  297 

titles  are:  "A  New  England  Nun,"  "The  Revolt  of  Mother," 
"The  Wind  in  the  Rose-Bush,"  "The  South-West  Chamber." 
The  student  can  make  his  own  selection  from  Matthews's  Vignettes 
«l  Mii/ihattan.  Page  may  be  judged  by  "Mars  Chan,"  and  "Meh 
Lady,"  and  other  tales  in  the  volume  In  Ole  Virginia,  and  from 
Red  Rock.  From  Cable's  sketches  in  Old  Creole  Days  may  be 
chosen  "Posson  Jone,"  "Jean-ah  Poqulin."  Of  Cable's  novels 
The  Grandissimes  has  been  best  received.  For  the  work  of  Mary 
N.  Murfree  see  the  volume,  'In  the  Tennessee  Mountains;  and  for 
James  Lane  Allen,  The  Blue  Grass  Region  and  other  sketches  of 
Kentucky,  Flute  and  Violin,  and  for  a  sample  of  his  longer  fiction, 
The  Kentucky  Cardinal.  Representative  of  Owen  Wister  are  "Phi 
losophy  Four,"  and,  as  a  longer  work,  The  Virginian.  Much  of 
Hamlin  Garland's  best  work  may  be  judged  from  the  tales  in 
Main  Travelled  Roads,  e.g.,  "Up  the  Coolly,"  "Among  the  Corn- 
Rows,"  "The  Return  of  a  Private." 

Among  the  better  romances  of  Crawford  are  Saracinesca,  Sant' 
Ilario,  Don  Orsino,  A  Cigarette-Maker's  Romance. 

The  study  of  lesser  living  novelists  and  their  work  should  not 
form  an  important  part  of  a  course  in  American  literature,  but  the 
following  partial  list  of  works  that  have  attracted  attention  in 
recent  years  may  be  useful  for  reference:  F.  Hopkinson  Smith, 
Col.  Carter  of  Carter sville;  Winston  Churchill,  Richard  Carvel, 
The  Crossing,  The  Crisis;  Edith  Wharton,  The  House  of  Mirth; 
Mrs.  Margaret  Deland,  John  Ward,  Preacher,  Old  Chester  Tales 
(short  stories) ;  Mary  Johnston,  To  Have  and  to  Hold;  Frank  Norris, 
The  Pit,  The  Octopus. 

Much  of  Bunner's  most  successful  verse  may  be  found  in  the 
collection  Airs  from  Arcady,  e.g.,  "The  Way  to  Arcady,"  "Da 
Capo,"  "One,  Two,  Three,"  "An  Old  Song."  Representative  poems 
of  Richard  Hovey  are  "Unmanifest  Destiny,"  "Love  in  the  Winds," 
"The  Wander-Lovers."  From  Moody  the  student  should  read 
"Ode  in  Time  of  Hesitation,"  "On  a  Soldier  Fallen  in  the  Philip 
pines,"  "Gloucester  Moors";  from  Kmilv  Dickinson,  "Parting,"' 
"Autumn,"  "Fringed  Gentian,"  "  ( 'hart less,"  "Heart,  we  will  forget 
him,"  "The  Railway  Train,"  "Vanished."  Field's  work  may  be 
represented  by  "Little  Boy  Blue,"  "Dutch  Lullaby,"  "The  Hush- 
arbye  Lady,"  "The  Singing  in  Cod's  Acre,"  "The  Truth  about 
Horace,"  "Dibdin's  Ghost."  "Just  'fore  Christmas"  ;  and  his  prose 


298 

fiction  may  be  seen  in  A  Little  Book  of  Profitable  Tales.  A  few  of 
Gilder's  better  brief  pieces  are  "Ode,"  "The  Sonnet,"  "The  Heroic 
Age." 

Among  the  verses  of  James  Whitcomb  Riley  that  have  had 
greatest  popular  vogue  are  "A  Life  Lesson,"  "Away,"  "Knee  Deep 
in  June,"  "Nothin'  to  Say,"  "An  Old  Sweetheart  of  Mine,"  "Little 
Orphant  Annie,"  "When  the  Frost  is  on  the  Punkin,"  "The  Old 
Man  and  Jim,"  "The  Raggedy  Man,"  "Old  Aunt  Mary's," 
"Kissing  the  Rod,"  "Our  Kind  of  a  Man."  Selections  from  the 
Reverend  Henry  Van  Dyke's  poems  may  be  found  in  The  Van  Dyke 
Book.  The  poems  of  Madison  J.  Cawein  may  be  judged  from  a 
selected  volume  compiled  by  the  author  with  an  introduction  by 
W.  D.  Howells. 

Lafcadio  Hearn's  early  manner  may  be  judged  from  his  tale 
Chita,  a  Memory  of  Lost  Island,  and  his  later  work  from  selections 
from  Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan,  or  others  of  the  volumes  written 
after  his  removal  to  the  Far  East. 

The  student  should  make  his  own  choice  from  the  writings  of  the 
essayists,  taking  into  consideration  the  subjects  treated  and  the 
kind  of  essay  he  enjoys.  Professor  Matthews  has  published  several 
volumes  of  essays,  but  can  perhaps  be  seen  to  best  advantage  in 
The  American  of  the  Future  and  Other  Essays,  Gateways  to  Litera 
ture  and  Other  Essays.  Some  of  Professor  Van  Dyke's  essays  are 
collected  in  the  volume,  Essays  in  Application.  Some  of  Mabie's 
many  critical  essays  may  be  found  in  My  Study  Fire,  Essays  in 
Literary  Interpretation.  Miss  Agnes  Repplier  has  published  Books 
and  Men,  Points  of  View,  Essays  in  Idleness.  Burroughs's  com 
ments  on  nature  and  on  literature  may  be  found  in  such  volumes  as 
Wake  Robin,  Indoor  Studies,  Birds  and  Poets.  S.  M.  Crothers  is 
at  his  best  in  The  Gentle  Reader.  Paul  Elmer  More  is  the  author 
of  the  Shelburne  Essays.  Robert  Grant  writes  informally  in  Re 
flections  of  a  Married  Alan,  The  Art  of  Living ;  and  employs  some 
what  of  the  same  vein  in  his  novel  The  Chippendales. 

Suggestions,  for  Papers  and  Topics.  —  The  most  valuable  topics 
on  the  recent  times,  those  which  discuss  general  movements  and 
tendencies,  are  likely  to  call  for  more  reading  and  consideration 
than  the  student  can  give.  Comparisons  may  be  made  between 
recent  writers  and  their  predecessors  in  the  same  fields,  but  these 
will  suggest  themselves  so  readily  that  they  need  not  be  pointed 


RECENT  YEARS  299 

out  here.  A  comparison  between  two  or  more  of  the  better  maga 
zines  as  regards  relative  proportions  of  articles  of  different  kinds, 
etc.,  would  be  valuable  (should  be  based  on  not  less  than  one  full 
year  of  each). 

Suggested  topics  on  writers  of  fiction  :  Bunner's  humor ;  Stock 
ton's  use  of  the  hoax  (Compare  "The  Lady;  or  the  Tiger?"  with 
"Marjorie  Daw");  Local  color  stories  of  New  England,  of  New 
York,  of  the  different  regions  of  the  South  and  the  West ;  The  use 
of  dialect  in  local  color  short  stories ;  The  treatment  of  the  super 
natural  by  recent  writers. 

Suggested  topics  on  writers  of  verse :  Striking  recent  poems  and 
the  earlier  poems  they  suggest;  The  popular  element  in  Field's 
and  Riley's  work ;  Recent  poems  of  patriotism. 


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AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Irving:  Tales  of  a 
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Cooper  :  Last  of  the  Mohi 
cans. 
Cooper  :  Red  Rover  ; 
Prairie. 
Dana  :  Poems. 
Poe  :  Tamerlane  and 

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Irving  :  Life  and  Voyages 
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Hawthorne  :  Fanshawe. 
Hull:  Letters  from  the 
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Irving  :  Conquest  of 
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319 


1853.  Pierce  President. 

1857.  Buchanan  President. 

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AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Emerson  :  Conduct  of  I 

Hawthorne  :  Marble  Ft 

Holmes  :  Professor  at 

Breakfast  Table. 

Timrod  :  Poems. 

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09.  Arnold:  Culture  and 
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Blackmore:  Lorna  Doone. 

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Taylor:  Translatio 
Faust. 
Bryant:  Translation 

iliad. 

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master. 
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1877.  Hayes  President. 

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grim  ;  Roderick  Hudson. 
Longfellow:  Mascnu1  of 
Pandora. 

Mark  Twain  :  Tom  Sawyer. 
I.nnier:  Poems. 

James:  The  American. 
Miss  .Jewett  :  Deephaven. 

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Burroughs:  Locusts  a 
Wild  Honey. 
Ryan  :  Poems. 

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APPENDIX 


325 


1885.  Cleveland  President. 

1883.  Stevenson  :  Treasure  Is- 

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AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Mark  Twain  :  Connecticut 

Yankee  at  King  Arthur's 
Court. 
Howells  :  Hazard  of  New 
Fortunes, 
(•rawf  ord:  Sant'  Ilario. 

Bu  nner  :  Short  Sixes. 
Crawford  :  Cigarette-Mak 
er's  Romance. 
Holmes  :  Over  the  Tea- 
Cups. 
Field:  Little  Book  of 
Western  Verse;  Little 
Book  of  Profitable 
Tales. 

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INDEX 


Abbott,  Jacob,  205. 

Abolitionism,  sec  Anti-slavery  move 
ment. 

Abolitionists,  New  England,  147-171. 

"Adams  and  Liberty,"  55. 

Adams,  John,  52,  56,  80. 

Adams,  John  Quiney,  115  n. 

Adams,  Samuel,  52,  SO. 

Addison,  influence  of,  .'56,  56. 

Ade,  George,  204. 

"Adulator,"  53. 

Adventures  of  Captain  Bonncville,  95. 

"After  the  Burial,"   150  n. 

Age  of  Reason,  55  n.,  6}. 

Airs  from  A  ready,  207. 

"Al  Aaraaf,"  242. 

Al  Aaraaf,  Tamerlane  ami  other 
Poems,  236. 

Alcott,  A.  B.,  146-147,  185,  204,  266, 
270-271. 

Aleott,  Louisa  M.,  147  n.,  204-205, 
269,  273. 

Aldrieh,  Thomas  Bailey,  220,  21? 2- 
224,  231,  274,  270,  I'M. 

Ml,,iml>m,  04,  05,  97,  124,   126. 

Allen,  James  Lane,  207. 

American,  220  n.,  230  n. 

American  Anthology,  222. 

American  Claimant,  256  n. 

Ainini/i  nil/  Hooks,    165  "II. 

Anarchiad,  60,  M . 

Ancestral  l''not*lci>,  ISO  n. 

"Annabel   Lee,"  242,  243. 

Anthology  ( 'lub.  115. 

Anti-slavery  movement,  132,  147. 

"Arrow  and  the  Song,"   180. 

"Artemus  Ward,"  sec.  Browne, 
fharle-  !•'. 

Arthur  Mr, •/•////,  6s. 

Art  of  Living,  20S. 


Astoria,  95. 

As  We  were  Saying,  269. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  131,  159,  167. 

"Auf  Wiedersehen,"  159  n. 

Autobiography,  Franklin's,  37,  39,  40, 

41,  48,  49,  97. 
Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table,    100, 

107,  100,  200,  202  n.,  260,  272. 

Backwoodsman,  112. 

Baron's  Rebellion,  12. 

"Bagatelles,"  40. 

"Ballad   of   Trees   and   the    Master," 

249. 
Bancroft,   George,   20,   S6,   200,   207, 

260. 

"Banker  poet,"  sec  Stedman,  10.  ('. 
"Barefoot  Boy,"  150. 
Barlow,  Joel,  55,  50  00,  01,  si,  S3. 
"  Bar  Sinister,"  200. 
"  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic,"  211, 

270. 

"Battle  of  the  Kegs,"  65,  72. 
Han  I'salm  Book,  24,  45,  46. 
"  Beaver  Brook,1'  161. 
"Bedouin  Love  Song,"  232. 
Beeeher,  Henry  Ward,  225-226,  274, 

270. 

lie'im.l  «,   lion,    269. 

"Bells,"  242  n.,  243. 

lien-llnr,   11   Tale  of  the    Christ,    252 

253,  2SO. 
Hetirccn    the    Dark    anil    the    Dai/lii/'it, 

22S  n.,  275. 

HUilc,  influence  of,    10,  24. 
Hi'tlloir  l'o.,,ers.  S.'{,   150.   100,   102    165. 

10S,  202  n..  207.  271. 
"Bill  and  Joe,"    100. 

" Birdof reedom  Sa\\-in,"  163. 

Hints  and  I'oitx,   20S. 


332 


INDEX 


Birds'  Christmas  Carol,  287,  296. 
"Birthmark,"  190  n.,  191  n. 
"Black  Cat,"  143. 
Blithedale    Romance,     188,     193-194, 

266. 
Blue  Grass  Region  and  other  Sketches 

of  Kaitiirl:*/.  297. 
"  Bohemians,"  220. 
Boker,  George  H.,  233,  275,  27ti. 
Books  and  Men,  29.S. 
Boston,    130 ;     literary    environs    of, 

270 ;     see    New    England,    Massa 
chusetts. 
"Boys,"  199. 
Bracebridge  Hall,  92-93,  97,   121   n., 

124,  126. 

Brackenridge,  Henry  M.,  250  n. 
Brackenridgc,  Hugh   Henry,  67,  81— 

82. 
Bradford,  William,  17,  18,  19  n.,  23, 

29,  45,  46,  47,  48. 
I '. r:i <! street,  Anne,  24-25,  46. 
"Brahma,"  140. 
Breadwinners,  253. 
"Breakfast-Table  series,"    197,    199- 

200. 

Brook  Farm,  133,  147  n.,  184,  260. 
"Broomstick  Train,"  19'). 
Brown,  Charles  Brockden,  68-69,  77, 

79,  82,  104. 
Browne,    Charles    Farrar,    209,    258, 

269,  273. 

Brownson,  Orestes  A.,  141  n. 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  61,   83,  87, 

105-109,  123,  125,  126-127,  178  n. 
"Building  of  the  Ship,"  181. 
Bunner,  Henry  Cuyler,  284-285,  290, 

296,  297,  299. 
Burroughs,  John,  294,  298. 
Burwell  Papers,  12,  13,  44-45. 
Butler,  Samuel,  influence  of,  12,  36. 
Byrd,  William,  13,  44,  45,  73,  79  n. 

Cable,  George  W.,  287,  297. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  119,  127. 

California  and  Oregon  Trail,  208,  269, 
273. 

Cambridge  in  the  Nineteenth  Cen 
tury,  130,  270. 


"Cambridge  Thirty  Years  Ago,"  166. 

Cape  Cod,  144  n.,  266. 

Carey,  William,  67. 

Carmen,  Bliss,  290. 

Gary,  Alice,.  230,  275. 

Gary,  Phoebe,  230,  275. 

"Cask  of  Amontillado,"  241. 

Castilian  Days,  253,  279. 

Cathedral  Courtship,  296. 

Cawein,  Madison  J.,  291,  298. 

Celebrated  Jumping  Frog,  256  n. 

Century  of  Dishonor,  262  n. 

"Chambered  Nautilus,"  199. 

Chance  Acquaintance,  228  n. 

"Changeling,"  159  n.,  160. 

Channing,  William  Ellery,  115-116. 

Channing,  William  Ellery  (2d), 
141  n. 

"Charles  Egbert  Craddock,"  see 
Murfree,  Mary  N. 

Charlotte  Temple,  53-54. 

Child,  Lydia  Maria,  116. 

Chippendales,  298. 

Chita,  a  Mem.ory  of  Lost  Island,  298. 

Choate,  Rufus,  208,  252,  269. 

Christus,  a  Mystery,  178. 

Chronological  Tables,  301. 

Churchill,  Winston,  289,  297. 

Cigarette-Maker's  Romance,  288. 

Circuit  Rider,  252,  279. 

Clara  Howard,  68. 

Clari,  the  Maid  of  Milan,  111. 

Clarke,  James  Freeman,  141  n. 

Clay,  Henry,  119,  127. 

Clemens,  Samuel  Langhorne,  see 
"Mark  Twain." 

"Cleopatra,"  204  n. 

Cobbett,  William,  66-67. 

Colonel  Carter  of  Cartersville,  297. 

Colonial  Period  of  American  Litera 
ture,  1,  3-49. 

"Columbia,"  57,  72. 

Columbiad,  59,  60,  61,  81,  83. 

"Columbus,"  261. 

Common  Lot,  289. 

Common  Sense,  63,  64,  81. 

Concord  in  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
130,  270. 

Coridensed  Novels,  260. 


INDEX 


333 


Connecticut,  see  New  England. 
Connecticut  Yankee  in  King  Arthur's 

Court,  279,  256  n.,  2r>7. 
"Conquered  Banner,"  247. 
Conquest  of  Canaan,  58,  61,  81,  85  n. 
Conquest  of  Granada,  94,  97,  124,  125. 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  207  n. 
Conquest  of  Peru,  207  n. 
Conspiracy  of  Ponliac,  208  n.,  269. 
Cook,  Ebenezer,  12,  79  n. 
Cooke,    John    Esten,    246-247,    277, 

278. 

Cooke,  Philip  Pendleton,  246-247. 
Cooper,    James  Fenimore,  85  n.,    87, 

99-105,    109,    122,    123,    125,    126, 

127,  228,  245,  262. 
Coplas  de  Manrique,  175. 
"Corn,"  248. 

Cotton,  John,  21,  30,  45,  46. 
Country  of  the  Pointed  Firs,  296. 
"Courtin',"  163-164  n. 
Courtship  of  Miles  Standish,  177. 
"Craddock,     Charles     Egbert,"     see 

Murfree,  Mary  N. 
Craigie  House,  174. 
Cranch,  Christopher  P.,  141  n. 
Crawford,  Francis  Marion,  288,  297. 
Crisis  (Churchill),  289,  297. 
Crisis  (Paine),  63,  64,  81. 
Criticism  and  Fiction,  228  n. 
Croaker  Poems,  109. 
Crossing,  289,  297. 

Crothers,  Samuel  McChord,  294,  298. 
Culprit  Fay,  1 10. 
Curtis,  George  William,  133  n.,  224- 

225,  274,  276. 

Daisy  Miller,  229  n.,  230  n. 
Dana,  Charles  A.,  133  n. 
Dana,  Richard  Henry,  116,  127. 
Dana,    Richard   Henry,  Jr.,  211-212, 

270,  273. 

David  Harum,  288. 
Davis,  R.  H.,  286-2x7,  2<)6. 
Day  of  Doom,  25-26,  47. 
"Deacon's  Masterpiece,"  199. 
Declaration  of  Independence,  39,   65, 

73.  74-75,  78,  82,  83. 
Deervlayer,  101. 


Deland,  Margaret  Wade,  289,  297. 

"Democratic  Vistus,"  214. 

Dennie,  Joseph,  119. 

"Descent  into  the  Maelstrom,"  241. 

Dial,  133,  146,  147. 

"Diamond  Lens,"  220  n. 

Dickinson,  Emily,  290-291,  297. 

Dickinson,  John,  65. 

Divine  Tragedy,   17s. 

Dr.  Grimshaw's  Secret,  189  n. 

"Dr.  Heidegger's  Experiment,"  190 n 

Dolliver  Romance,  189. 

Don  Orsino,  288. 

"Doolev,   Mr.,"  see  Dunne,  Peter. 

Drake,    Joseph    Rodman,    87,     109, 

110-111,  125,  126. 
Drama  in  early  times,  54,  62,  79. 
Dream  Life,  206. 
Dunbar,  Paul  N.,  290. 
Dunlap,  William,  62,  79,  81. 
Dunne,  Peter,  294. 
"Dupin,"  241. 
Dutchman's  Fireside,  112. 
Dwight,  Timothy,  55,  57-58,  60,  61, 

81,  83. 

"Easy  Chair"  in  Harper's  Monthly, 
225. 

Echo,  60,  81. 

Edgar  Hnnilttj,  68. 

Education  in  Southern  colonies,  10- 
11;  in  Xew  England  colonies,  42. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  34-35,  47,  48. 

Eggleston,  Edward,  252,  279,  280. 

Ei>l)it  Ciiiifint!,  205. 

Elevator,  -!-"-.  a. 

Elizabethan  influence  on  American 
Literature,  4-5,  15. 

Elmwood,  157,  159. 

/•:/*/,   Venner,  l'.»7,  200,  269. 

l-lii/lnirijo,  105. 

Emerson,  12!)  130  n.,  131  n.,  133- 
141,  142,  143,  144,  146  n.,  147,  161, 
202.  'JON.  2 1C,  n.,  221,  266,  270. 

English  criticisms  of  American  writ 
ings,  s  1  s,">. 

/<;//f///W/  Traits,  134. 

Essay  fur  tin  h'i  rnn/ini/  of  Illustrious 
Providmc,*,  :<2,  48. 


334 


L\I)E.\' 


in  Application,  298. 
A'.s.-.v;.//.s-  ///   Iillt-ni-NN,  29cS. 
"Eternal  Goodness,"  15(i  n. 
"Ethan  Brand,"  191  n . 
Europeans,  229  n. 
Evangeline,  177,  179,  180. 
Everett,    Edward,    86,    115    n.,     lls, 
•     127,  208,  252. 
Excursions,  144  n. 

Fable  for  Critics,  159,  1G1,  165,  244  n. 
Fair  God,  253. 
Faith  Healer,  290. 

"Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher,"  240. 
Famous  Old  People,  188. 
"Fanny,"  110. 
Fanshawe,  185. 

"Father  Abraham's  Address,"  39. 
Faust,  Taylor's  translation,  232,  233. 
Federalist,  62,  78,  81,  S3. 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  207  n. 
Field,  Eugene,  292   293,  297   298,  299. 
Fields,  James  T.,  155  n.,  188,  203,  269. 
Fireside  Travels,  166,  167  n. 
Fiske,  John,  206. 
Flint,  Timothy,   121   n. 
"  Florence  V:me,"   247. 
Flute  and  Violin,  297. 
Folger,  Peter,  26  27,  46. 
Fulluiring  th<:  Equator,  256  n. 
Ford,  Paul  Leicester,  287-288. 
Foregone  Conclusion,  22S  n. 
Foster,  Stephen  C.,  250,  279-280. 
Francesca  da  Rimini,  233,  275,  276. 
Franklin,    Benjamin,    36-41,   48,   49, 

62,  79,  83,  119,  251. 
Freedom  of  the  Will,  Treatise  on,  35. 
Freeman,  Mary  E.  Wilkins,  2S6,  296. 
Freneau,  Philip,  69,  77,  79,  82,  83. 
"Friendship,"  266. 
Froissart    Ballads    and   other   Pu<  ///*, 

246-247. 

Fruitlands,  147  n.,  271. 
Fuller,    Margaret,    133  n.,    145-146, 

266,  270-271. 

Gabriel  Conroy,  260. 
Gallagher,  William  D.,  250  n. 
Gallagher  and  other  Stories,  296. 


Garland,  Hamlin,  287,  297. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  148-150, 
151,  152,  266,  271. 

Gtiletrut/.*;  to  Literature  and  other 
Essays,  298. 

Gentle  Reader,  298. 

German  influence  on  American  educa 
tion,  86,  131. 

"Gettysburg  Address,"  251. 

C.llded  Age,  206,  256  n. 

Gilder,  'Richard  Watson,  291. 

Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan,  298. 

Godfrey,  Thomas,  41,  48-49. 

"Gold-Bug,"  241. 

Golden  Legend,  178. 

"Good  Word  for  Winter,"  267. 

Goodrich,  S.  G.,  113-114,  185,  186. 

Grandfather's  Chair,  188,  268. 

Grandissemcs,  297. 

Grant,  Robert,  29s. 

"Gray  Champion,"  190  n. 

Gran  Days  and  Gold,  273. 

Great  Awakening,  35. 

Great  Divide,  290. 

Greatest  achievement,  period  of,  2, 
128-280. 

Greenfield  Hill,  58,  SI,  s:i 

Green  Mountain  HOI/N.  212.  270. 

Grisvvold,  Rufus  W..  237  n. 

"Group,"  53. 

Guardian  Angel,  197,  200,  201,  269. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  209-210,  269, 

273. 

"Hale  in  the  Bush,"  72. 
Half-Century  of  Conflict,  208  n. 
Hall,  James,  121  n. 
Halleck,     FitzGreene,    87,    109-110, 

125,  126. 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  61-62,  79,  81, 

82. 

Harris,  Joel  Chandler,  286,  296. 
Harte,   Bret,  259-261,  279,  280,  284. 
Hartford  Wits,  55-61,  67,  78,  79,  81, 

N3,  87,  113. 

Harvard  College,  founding  of,  16. 
"Harvard     Commemoration     Ode," 
'    162. 
"Harvey  Birch,"  104,  126. 


INDEX 


335 


Hasty  Pudding,  59,  M. 

Hathorne,  ,s<<    Hawthorne. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  1!)  n.,  (is,  120. 
129-130  n..  133  n.,  140  n.,  Kil,  171, 
182-105,  202,  203  n.,  20S,  272. 

Hay,  John,  2. ',3.  270.  2sO. 

Hayne,  Paul  Hamilton,  244,  245- 
24(1.  277.  27s. 

Hazard  of  \<  ir  Fortunt'a,  228  n. 

Hearn,  Lafcadio,  203   204,  298. 

"  Hearts  of  Oak,"  72. 

"Heathen  Chinee,"  260  n. 

Henry,  Patrick,  75,  78,  82,  83. 

"Her  Letter,"  260. 

Herriek,  Robert,  2SO. 

"H.  H.,"  sec  Jackson,  Helen  Hunt. 

IHatrntha,    177,    179,   2(iS. 

Higginson,  Thomas  Wentworth,  209- 
210,  270. 

Historical  Writings  in  Karly  New- 
England,  17-19,  27-30. 

History  of  tftf  Diridi nij  I.iin  ,  13. 

Hobomok,  116. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  120  130  n., 
131  n.,  171.  10.")  202,  20s,  200.  211, 
226.  25S,  26S  2110,  272. 

"Home,  Sweet  Home,"   111,  112. 

"Homer  Wilbur,"   163. 

Hononi.liic  ]'</</•  Stirlini/,  2ss. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  21,  45,  46. 

ffoosit  /•  Schoolmaxtrr,  252,  279. 

HopkiiiM.n.  Francis,  65  (id,  si    s2,  S3. 

HorSCtihoi'   Itohin.'on,    120. 

"Hosea  Biglow,"   163,   164. 
Huns,'  ,>f  Mirth,  2SO,  207. 
"House  of  Night,"  70. 
House  »f  tin  Seven  <;ai,i,-*,  iss.  102 

193. 

Hovey,   Richard,  200,  207. 
//nirailji   >ii   Syri.il..   225. 
Howe.  Julia  Ward,  211. 
Howells,      William      Dean,      22(1    22s. 

220,  230,  265  n.,  271    275.  27(1,  2s  |. 

288. 

llin-kl<>nrru  Finn,  256,  257.  25S.  27!). 
Hn/Horax,  influence  of,   12,  56,  57 
"  Hunters  of  Men."    151. 
Hutchinson,  Thomas  2!l. 
Hyperion,  175,  176. 


"Ichabod,"  154. 

"  Ik  Marvel,"  see  Mitchell,  Donald  <  1. 

Impressions  unit  l-l.r  /»  ri>  /in-.s,  275. 

Inchiquin  Li'tti'rn,  119. 

Indiana  Writers,  252-253  ;    see  West. 

Indians,  early  writings  about,  27   20. 

Indoor  Studies,  298. 

In<rersoll,  Charles  Jared,   119. 

Innocents  Abroad,  254.  256,  257,  279. 

In  Ole  Virtjiniti.,  297. 

"In  School-Days,"  153,  155. 

"Interludes."  224. 

I  nt  1  1-  national  Episode,  229  n.,   230  n. 

In  the  Tennessee  Mountains,  297. 

Irving,    Washington,    85    n.,    87-99, 

109,    122,    123,    124-125,    126,    190, 

202,  258,  262. 

"Irving  region"  of  the  Hudson,  126. 
"Israfel,"  243. 
Italian  Journi'//*,  227. 

.lad:  llii~.ii.ril  series,  205  n. 

Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  262,  270.  2SO. 

James,     Henry,     220   230,     275,     27(1. 

2S1,  2SS. 
,/atni'x  ItH.wll  Liiir,/l  anil  ///.s  ]''rii'tid.t, 

270. 

Jcme  Talhot,  (is. 
Jan  let-  Miri'dith,  288. 
Jay,  John,  62. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  73-75,  82. 
Jewett,  Sarah  Orne,  2S6,  296. 
"Jim  Hludso,"  253. 
.loan  of  An,  257,  270. 
"Joaquin    Miller,"    st'<-    Miller,    Cin- 

cinnatus  Miner. 

./i/A/(  Hull  anil  Itraiht  r  Jonathan,   112. 
Johnston,    Mary,   2SO,   207. 
John  \Vanl.  Preacher,  2so,  207. 
"Jon;ithan  Oldstyle,"  SO. 
"Josh  Hillings,"  fii'i-  Shaw,  Henry  W. 
anil  h'.r/mli,  ni'if,    152. 


,   176. 
Kennedy,   John   IVndleton,    120-121, 

127. 

Ktnliifkti  Cardinal,  207. 
Key.    1'Yaneis  Scott.    121. 


336 


INDEX 


"Knickerbocker"  Period,  1,  84-127. 
Knickerbocker  Writers,  87-112,  122- 

123,  124-126. 
Knickerbocker's  History  of  New  York, 

87  n.,  91,  92,  93,  94,  97,  124. 
Koningsmarke,  the  Long  Finne,  112. 

Lady  of  the  Aroostook,  228  n. 
"Lady;    or  the  Tiger?"    285,296. 
Lanier,    Sidney,    247-249,    264,    277, 

278. 

"Last  Leaf,"  197,  198-199. 
Last  of  the  Mohicans,  101,  104  n.,  125, 

126. 

Launcelot  and  Guenevere,  290. 
Lay  Preacher,  119. 
Lazarus,  Emma,  231,  275. 
Leather  Stocking  and  Silk,  247. 
Leatherstocking  Tales,   100,   101,    125, 

126. 

Leaves  of  Grass,  214-21!). 
''Lesson  of  the  Master,"  230  n. 
Letters  of  a  British  Spy,  120  n. 
Liberator,  148. 
"Liberty  Song,"  72. 
Liberty  Tree,  188. 
Life  of  Columbus,  94. 
Life  on  the  Mississippi,  256  n.,  257, 

279. 

"Ligeia,"  241. 
Lincoln,     Abraham,     127,     250-252, 

279,  280. 
Linwoods,  116. 
Literature  and  Life,  275. 
"Little  Annie's  Ramble,"  190. 
Little  Book  of  Profitable  Tales,  298. 
"Little  Breeches,"  253. 
Little  Women,  205. 
Local  color  stories,  285-287. 
Logan,  118. 
Longfellow,    Henry   Wadsworth,    61, 

129-130  n.,    139  n.,   159,   171-182, 

188  n.,  202,  219,  221,  239  n.,  267- 

268,  271-272,  291. 
" Looking-Glass  for  the  Times,"  26. 
Love  in  Old  Cloathes  and  other  Stories, 

285,  296. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,    130  n.,    131, 

146  n.,  148,  156-168,  175  n.,  198  n., 


202,  203,  208,  209,  221,  226.  244, 

258,  267,  271. 

"Luck  of  Roaring  Camp,"  259. 
Lyceum,  131. 

Mabie,  Hamilton  W.,  294,  298. 
McFingal,  57,  60,  81,  83. 
Madison,  James,  62. 
"Madonna  of  the  Future,"  230  n. 
Magazines,  212  n. ;    present  tenden 
cies  in,  283. 

Magnalia  Christi  Americana,  32. 
Maine  Woods,  144  n.,  266. 
Main  Travelled  Roads,  297. 
"Man  without  a  Country,"  210,  269, 

273. 

Map  of  Virginia,  8. 
Marble  Faun,  188,  194. 
"Marco  Bozzaris,"  110. 
"Margaret  Smith's  Journal,"  156. 
"Marjory  Daw,"  223. 
"Mark  Twain,"   206,   254-259,   279, 

280. 

"Mars  Chan,"  297.  \ 

Marshall,  John,  120. 
"Marshes  of  Glynn,"  249. 
"Masque  of  the  Gods,"  232. 
Massachusetts,  sec  New  England. 
Massachusetts  Bay,  14. 
"Massachusetts  to  Virginia,"  154. 
Mather,  Cotton,  30-34,  47,  48. 
Mather,  Increase,  28,  30-34,  47,  48. 
Matthews,    Brander,    286,    294,    297, 

298. 

"Maud  Muller,"  155. 
"May-Day,"  140. 
"Meh  Lady,"  297. 
Mellichampe,  245. 
Melville,  Herman,  226,  274,  276. 
M!i-l,/i.il  Angela,  178. 
Middle  region,  writings  in,  36-41,  43, 

ts-49,  61-73,  79,  81-112,  119,  212- 

233,  273-276. 
Miles  Standish,  178-179. 
Miller,  Cincinnatus  Hiner,  261,  279. 
"Minister's  Black  Veil,"   190  n. 
Ministers  in  Early  New  England,  19- 

23,  30-35. 
Minister's  Wooing,  169,  267. 


INDEX 


337 


Mitchell,    Donald    Grant,     -Mi:,  2011. 

269,  27M. 

Mnhif  Dick-,  or  the  White  What,-,  22ti. 
Modern  Chivalry,  67,  81. 
Mixltni  Instnnct,  228  n. 
"  .Monna  Lisa,"  162. 
Moody,  William  Vaughn,  290,  297. 
More,  Paul  Elmer,  294,  298. 
Morris,  George  P.,  Ill,  125,  127. 
Mortal  Antipathy,  197,  201. 
Morton,  Thomas,  19,  46,  47. 
Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse,  185,  187, 

189,  190,  2r,s. 
Motley,  John  Lothrop,  29,  206  207, 

269. 

"Muckraking"  essays,  292. 
"Murders  in  the  Rue  Morgue,"  241. 
Murfree,  Mary  X.,  287,  297. 
"My  Country  'tis  of  Thee,"  211,  270. 
"My    Double    and    How    he    Undid 

Me,"  269. 
"My    Garden    Acquaintance,"    166, 

267,  271. 
"My  Life  is  Like  the  Summer  Rose," 

121, 

"My  Lost  Youth,"  180. 
"M\>tery  of  Marie  Roget,"  241. 
My  Study  Fire,  29s. 
M a  Studu  \\ 'in/In II-N.   105  n. 
My  Summer  in  a  Garden,  269. 

Narrative   of  Sitrfiriisimj    <'<inc<r*iiui.-. 

35,  48. 
\armtirt1    af    Arthur    Gordon    J'i/m. 

230,  239. 

"Natty   Bumpo,"   126. 
Nature,  134. 
Ncal,  John,   1  Is. 
"Negative  Gravity,"  285. 
"Nellie  was  a  Lady,"  250. 
"New  Kngland  Nun."  2sfi. 
.Vi  </•   l-'ni/ln.iiil  \un  mill  other  Stories, 

296. 

\iir  Kni.iliunl  I'l-hiiir,  21   n..    is. 
\<ii-  l:'tti/lninl   'I'rn.i/i /Hi  .-•.    17s. 
New  Kngland.  writings  in.   1  1   3d.   12. 

45- is.    .-,]    (il,   7s  7!).   NO-sl.    1  12 

1  Is.    I2:i.    127,    12!)    212.   2ti.->    -73. 
New  Kni.lli.ili    ''niKinn,    l!l. 


New  Jersey,  writings  in,  69-71 ;    see 

Middle  Region. 
"  New  Roof,"  d.~i. 
New  York,  writings  in,  61-62,  122 

123,    124-126,    129,    212-231: 

Middle  Region. 
Xili'  .\ot<'.i  of  a  Howculji,  225. 
Norris,  Frank,  2ss,  297. 
\nrth  American  Review,  115,  127,  15!». 
\<>tix  mi  V i nji /da,  73. 
Norwood,  Colonel,  45. 

O'Brien,  FitzJames,  220,  274,  27(i. 

Orlopus,  288,  297. 

"Ode  in  Time  of  Hesitation,"  2V)0. 

"Old  Black  Joe,"  250. 

Old  Cfiiiih,-;>lfj<:  270. 

Old  Chester  Tales,  297. 

Old  Creole  Dan*.  297. 

"Old  Folks  at  Home."  250. 

oiil  Friends,  274. 

"Old  Ironsides,"   Mm    1!)7. 

"Old  Kentucky  Home,"  250. 

"Old  Oaken  Bucket,"   111,  112. 

Ohltoirn   I-'oll;*.    1(19.   2(17. 

"Oliver  Oldschool,"  119. 

Omoo,  22(i. 

"On  a  Bust  of  Dante,"  203. 

"On    a    Certain     Condescension     in 

Foreigners"  267. 
"One  Hoss  Shay."   199. 
Oregon      Trail,      see      CiilifurniiL     mill 

Oregon  Trail. 
<h  iiKiinl,  68. 
"Orphic  Sayings,"  147. 
Ossoli,  Madame,  M<  Fuller,  Margaret. 
Otis,  James,  52,  s(),  83. 
"Our  Master,"    l.~ii;   n. 
Our  Ol<!  llonn.  189. 
••Outcasts  of  Poker  Flat,"  259. 
"Out  of  the  Cradle  Endlessly  Hod, 

ing.  '  2 is. 

Ouire-Mer,  175,  272. 
(>,,,-  ti,,   Tea-Cups,  197.  1!)!),  200. 

I'homas  Xels..n,  2s7.  297. 
lrc:it.  Jr..  64. 

Paine,  Th as,  (i3   (15.  7!».  si.   - 

Parker,  'I'lie.idore,   111  n. 


338 


INDEX 


Parkinan,  Francis,  29,  206,  207-208, 

269,  273: 

"Parlor  Car,"  228  n. 
Parsons,   Thomas  William,   203-204, 

269. 

Partisan,  245. 
Passionate  Pilgrim,  230  n. 
Pathfinder,  101. 

Piiulding,  James  Kirke,  87,  91,  112. 
Payne,  John  Howard,  111,  125,  126, 

127. 

/'<  ticlope's  Progress,  296. 
"Penman  of  the  Revolution,"  65. 
Pennsylvania,  writings  in,  see  Phila 
delphia,  Middle  Region. 
Pcrcival,  .lames  Gates,  113,  127. 
Periodicals,  86,  127. 
Periods  of  American  Literature,  1-2. 
Personal  Recollections  of  Joan  of  Arc, 

256  n.,  257,  279. 
"Peter  Parley,"    113-114,    122,    127, 

185. 

"Peter  Porcupine,"  67. 
Pfaff's  restaurant,  220,  275. 
Philadelphia,    writings   in,    119,    123, 

231-  23:-!;    see  Middle  Region. 
Phillips,   Wendell,    14S    150,  20S,  20<i, 

271. 

"Philosophy  Four,"  207. 
Philosophy  of  Composition,  23S,  L'43. 
Pike  ( 'uniit a  Balltulx,  l^">.'->. 
Pilot,  100,  101,  104,  125,  120. 
Pinkney,  Edward  Coate,   121,   127. 
J'iiitni-r,  158. 
Pioneers,  100,  101,  125. 
Pit,  288,  297. 

"Pit  and  the  Pendulum,"  241. 
"Plain  Talk  from  Truthful  James," 

260. 

Pocahontas,  6  n. 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  68,  106,  126,  180  n., 

234-244,  264,  277,  278,  284. 
Poems  of  the  Orient,  232. 
l'»H  at  the  Breakfast-Table,  197,  200. 
"Poetic  Principle,"  23s. 
Poetry  in  early  New  England,  23-27. 
Poets  of  America,  222. 
Points  of  View,  298. 
Political  satire,  83. 


Political   writings   in   New   England, 

51-52. 

Poor  Richard's  Almanac,  39,  48,  49. 
Portfolio,  119. 
Portrait  of  a  Lofty,  230  n. 
Pory,  John,  45. 
Potiphar  Papers,  225. 
Prairie,  101. 
Precaution,  99-100. 
Prentice,  George  D.,  250  n. 
Prescott,  William  Hickling,  29,  206- 

207,  269. 

"Present  Crisis,"  160. 
"Pretty  Story,"  65. 
Prince,  Thomas,  29. 
Prince  and  the  Pauper,  256  n. 
"Prince  Deukalion,"  232. 
Prince  of  Parthia,  41,  48,  49. 
"Private  Life,"  230  n. 
Professor  at  the  Breakfast-Table,  197. 
Professor's  Story,  see  Elsie  Venner. 
Progress  of  Dulnexx,  50,  <S1,  83. 
Prue  and  I,  225. 
"Psalm  of  Life,"  17(1  n. 
Pndd'nhead  Wilson,  256  n.,  258,  279. 
Puritans,  14,  15,  16,  27,  42,  129,  132. 
'"Purloined  Letter,"  241. 

"Rainy  Day,"  180. 

Riuiiona,  2(52,  279. 

Randolph,  John,   119,  127. 

"Raven,"  242,  243. 

Read,  Thomas  Buchanan,  233,  275, 
276. 

Readings  arid  Topics,  80-83,  43-49, 
123-127,  265-280,  296-299. 

Recent  Years  in  American  literature, 
2,  281-299. 

Redeemed  Captive  Returning  to  Zion, 
28-29. 

Red  Rock,  297. 

Red  Rover,  100,  101. 

ifi'jti'rtiftnx  of  a  Married  Man,  298. 

Religious  writings  in  early  New  Eng 
land,  1(1  23,  30-35. 

Renaissance  of  New  England,  131. 

Repplier,  Agnes,  294,  298. 

Representative  Men,  134  n.,  135. 

Reveries  of  a  Bachelor,  206,  269,  273. 


INDEX 


339 


"Revolt  of  Mother,"  286. 
Revolutionary    Period    in    American 

Literature,  1,  50-83. 
Richard  Carvel,  289,  297. 
Riggs,   Mrs.  George  ('..   .s«    Wiggin, 

Kate  Douglas. 
Right*  of  Man,  64. 
Riley,    James   Whitcomb,    291,    298, 

299. 

Ripley,  George,  133  n.,  141  n. 
Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  207  n. 
Rise  of  Silas  Lapham,  228  n.,  274. 
Rob  of  the  Bowl,  121. 
Roderick-  Ifud.*on,  230  n. 
Rollo  books,  205. 
"Roman     Lawyer     in     Jerusalem," 

204  n. 

Roughing  It,  256  n.,  257,  279. 
Rowlandson,  Mary,  28,  47. 
Rowson,  Susanna  Haswell,  53-54,  81. 
Rudder  Grange,  285,  296. 
"Ruling  Passion,"  55. 
Rustication,  158  n. 
Ryan,  Abram  J.,  247,  277,  278. 

"Sage  of  Concord,"  134  n. 

Sdlmwjundi,  93,  112. 

Sandys,  George,  9-10. 

Sant'  Ilario 

Saracinesca,  2sx. 

Satire,  political,  60,  66-67,  78. 

Scarlet    Letter,     188,     191-192,     193, 

203  n.,  26s. 

Science  of  EnoKafi  I '<•/-.•«•.  24s,  249. 
Seabury,  Samuel,  61. 
Sedgwick,  Catherine  M.,  116. 
"Self-Reliance, "  266. 
Septiminx  I-'ilton,  189. 
Sermons   in    Colonial   New   England, 

21—22,     47 ;      see    also    Ministers, 

Religious   Writings. 

.S'r  C<  util-si.r,    1  IS. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  29-30,  47,    is. 
Shaw,  Henry  W.,  253   254,  279. 
"She  Came  and  Went,"   159  n.,   Kill. 
Shelburin   A,'x.s«//.s.  29s. 
Shepard,  Thomas,  21,  45,  46. 
"Sheridan's  Ride,"  233. 

Short  Sixes,  291;. 


Short  story  in  recent  years,  284-287. 
"Sights  from  a  Steeple,"  190. 
Sigourney,  Lydia  Iluntley,   113,   127. 
Sill,  Edward  Rowland,  261,  279. 
Silliman,  Benjamin,  so. 
Simms,    William    Gilmore,    244-245, 

277,  278. 
Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawamm,   22-23, 

47. 
"Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry 

God,"  35. 
Sketch  Book,  91-92,  93,  97,  124,  126, 

175. 

"Skipper  Ireson's  Ride,"  155. 
"Sleeper,"  242,  243. 
"Sleeping  Car,"  228  n. 
Smith,  Captain  John,  5-9,  10,  44,  45, 

48. 

Smith,  F.  Hopkinson,  287,  297. 
Smith,  Samuel  F.,  211. 
Snow-Bound,    150,   151  n.,   153,   155, 

271. 

Image    and    other    Twice    Told 

7Wr.v,   1x5.   1x7.   iss,   1x9.  2<)x. 

nt  Solitude,  134  n. 
"Society  upon  the  Stanislaus."  2ti(). 
"Song  of  Myself,"  216  n.,  220  n. 
Sinajfi  fniiti    \'<i.i/ii.hi/ti(l/ti,  290. 
Sung*  of  the  l)rxcrt,  261. 
"Songs  of  Labor  and   Reform,"    1  ."><>. 
Sonyx  <if  th<-  M  i  .lira/i  Nia.s,  '-'til. 
Songs  of  the    Revolution,   71    7- 

SHIIIJH  of  the  Sitrnix,  261. 
SIHIIJX  of  t/if  Siutlaitdx.  261. 
Sot-\V>-<-d  l-'artor,    12,   13,  45. 
South,  writings  in,  4-14,  41-42,  44- 

45,  73-77,  79,   119-121,    123.    127. 

233-249,  276-278. 
Specimen  /*/.//*.  211,  273,  275. 
Spectator,  influence  of,  37. 
"Sphinx,"  140. 

S/iiritunl  M  ilk  fur  Itoxton   linlit.-i.  21. 
N/'.'/.   100.   101,   101,   125. 

"Star-Spangled  Banner."  121. 

Stedman.     Kdmund     ( 'larence.     220, 

221,  223.  231.  271.  276. 
Stockton.    Franeis    d'rank)    R.. 

296,  299. 


340 


INDEX 


Stoddard,  Richard  H.,  220,  221-222, 

2i'3,  231,  274,  276. 
Story,  Joseph,  115  n. 
Story  of  a  Bad  Boy,  223. 
Story,    William   Wetmore,   203,    204, 

269. 
Stowe,    Harriet   Beecher,    148,    168- 

171,  202,  267,  271. 
Strachey,  William,  9,  10,  44. 
Sumner,  Charles,  208,  269. 
Sunnyside,  89. 
Swallow  Barn,  120,  127. 
"Sword  of  Lee,"  247. 
"Symphony,"  249. 

Tabb,  John  B.,  291. 

Tales  of  New  England,  296. 

Tales  of  a  Traveller,  93,  94,  97,  124. 

Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn,  177-178,  268. 

Tamerlane,  242. 

Tamerlane  and  other  Poems,  236. 

Tanglewood  Tales,  188,  272. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  155  n.,  220,  231-233, 

275,  276. 

"Telling  the  Bees,"  155. 
T<  in  i><-iit.       perhaps      influenced      by 

Strachey,  9,  45. 
"Tenth  Muse,"  25. 
Tent  on  the  Beach,  153,  155,  203  n. 
"Thanatopsis,"    105,    106,    107,    10S, 

126. 

Their  Wedding  Jourru'ii.  22,s  n. 
Thomas,  Edith,  291. 
Thompson,  Daniel  P.,  212,  270. 
Thoroau,   131  n.,   141-145,   202,   20S, 

266,  270. 

"Threnody,"  140. 
Tickiior,  George,  115  n. 
Tiger  Lilies,  248. 
Timothy's  Quest,  287,  296. 
Timrod,    Henry,    244,   245-246,    277, 

278. 

"To  a  Pine-Tree,"  161. 
"To  a  Waterfowl,"  105,  107. 
To  Have  and  to  Hold,  289,  297. 
"To  Helen,"  242,  243. 
Token,  187. 
"Tom  Coffin,"  104. 
Tom  Sawyer,  256  n.,  257,  258,  279. 


"Tone  of  Time,"  230  n. 
Tour  on  the  Prairies,  95. 
Tramp  Abroad,  256  11. 
Transcendentalism,  132,  141  n.,  171. 
Transcendentalists,     New     England, 

132-147. 

"Transferred  Ghost,"  285. 
Transformation,  see  Marble  Faun. 
Trowbridge,  J.  T.,  204-205,  269,  273. 
Trumbull,   John,    55-57,   60,   61,    79, 

81,  83. 

True  Relation,  6,  8. 
Twain,  Mark,  see  "  Mark  Twain." 
Twice  Told  Tales,  185,  187,  189,  268. 
Two  Men  of  Sandy  Bar,  260. 
Two  Years  Before  the  Mast,  212,  270, 

273. 
Typee,  226. 

"Ulalume,"  242,  243. 

"Uncle  Remus,"  286,  296. 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  169-171,  267,  271. 

"Unmanifest  Destiny,"  290. 

"Up  the  Coolly,"  297. 

Van  Bibber  and  Others,  296. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  291,  294,  298. 

Venetian  Life,  227. 

Very,  Jones,  141  n. 

Views  Afoot,  231,  275. 

Vignettes  of  Manhattan,  286. 

Virginia,  writings  in,  see  South. 

Virginia  Comedians,  247. 

Virginian,  297. 

\'ixi<tn  of  Columbus,  59,  81,  83,  85  n. 

Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,  159,  161,  168, 

198-199  n.,  271. 
Voices  of  the  Night,  176,  178. 

Wake  Robin,  298. 

Walden  or  Life  in  the   Woods,    143, 

266,  270. 

Wallace,  Lew,  252-253,  279,  280. 
Ward,  Nathaniel,  22-23,  46. 
Warner,    Charles   Dudley,    206,    269, 

273. 

Warren,  Mercy  Otis,  53,  80-81. 
Wayside.  185. 
Way  to  Wealth,  39. 


INDEX 


341 


Webster,  Daniel,   117-118,  127,   154, 

208,  2.-).'. 

Webster's  Dictionary,  86. 
Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimac 

Rivers,  143. 

Weems,  Mason  L.,  120. 
Wescott,  Edward  Noyes,  288. 
West,  writings  in,  121,  123,  249-262, 

279-280. 

"  Westchester  Farmer,"  61. 
Westover  Manuscripts,  13. 
Wharton,  Edith,  289,  207. 
"  Wliat  was  It?   a  Mystery,"  220  11. 
"Wheel  of  Time,"  230  n. 
"When    Lilacs    Last    in    the    Door- 

Yard  Bloomed,"  21s. 
W  hi  taker,  Alexander,  45. 
White,  Maria,  158. 
Wrhite  Heron  and  Other  Stories,  2 '.Ml. 
White  Jacket,  226. 
Whitman,  Walt,  213-219,  220,  264, 

273,  275-276. 
Whittier,    John    Greenleaf,    61,    126, 

129-130  n.,  148,  150-156,  181,  201, 

202,  203  n.,  221,  266-267,  271. 
Wieland,  68,  82. 

Wiggin,  Kate  Douglas,  287,  296. 
Wigglesworth,  Michael,  25-26,  46. 
Wilde,  Richard  Henry,  121,  127. 
"Wild  Honeysuckle,"  70  n. 
Wilkins,  Mary  E.,  see  Freeman,  Mary 

E.  Wilkins. 
Williams,  Reverend  John,  28-29,  47. 


"William  Wilson,"  234  n. 

Willis,    Nathaniel    Parker,    224,    274, 

276. 
Wind    in    the    Rose-Bush    and    other 

Stories  of  the  Supernatural,  296. 
Winter,  William,  220,  273-274. 
Winthrop,  John,   17,   18,  29,  45,  46, 

47. 

Wirt.  William,  120,  127. 
Wister,  Owen,  287,  297. 
Woman  in  the  Nineteenth  Century, 

271. 

Wonder  Book,  188. 
"Wonderful  Tar-Baby  Story,"  286. 
Wonders  of 'the  Invisible  World,  32,  48. 
"\\ondersmith,"  220  n. 
Woodberry,  George  E.,  291,  294. 
"Woodman,  Spare  that  Tree,"  111. 
"  Woodnotes,"  140. 
Woodworth,  Samuel,   111,   125,  127. 
Woolman,  John,  71,  77,  79,  82,  83. 
Worci .</(  /-'.s  l)!rlio>«i.ry,  86. 
Wound-Dresser,  275. 
Wrack  and  Redemption  of  Sir  Thomas 

Gates,  9. 

Yale  College,  55. 

"Yankee  Doodle,"  72,  73. 

Yemassee,  245,  277. 

Yesterdays  with  Authors,  203,  269. 

Youth  of  Jefferson,  247. 

Zadoc  Pine  and  other  Stories,  285. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


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